Eight Fresno State plant science students were honored with awards for their research in competitions at annual conferences in California and Puerto Rico.

On Feb. 3 in Visalia, Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology students claimed five of the six poster honors at the California Plant and Soil Conference hosted by the California chapter of the American Society of Agronomy.

Touyee Thao (Fresno), Giulano Galdi (Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Elizabeth Mosqueda (Soledad) placed first, second and third, respectively, in the graduate student division. Seniors Sarah Parry (Sonora) and Ryan Cox (Visalia) finished first and second in the undergraduate division.

Their poster topics were effective sugar beet irrigation levels (Thao), alfafa field response to saline irrigation (Galdi), automated and manual lettuce weed thinning methods (Mosqueda), shade and soil moisture effects on jungle rice herbicide efficacy (Cox) and weed-free periods in romaine lettuce production (Parry).

Senior May Yang (Fresno) also placed second in the conference’s scholarship competition and received a $500 award.

From Jan. 13 to 14 in Sacramento, four Fresno State students earned top-three poster competition placings at the California Weed Science Society conference.

In oral competitions, Cox and Parry placed first and third among undergraduate students, respectively, and Jorge Angeles (Terra Bella) and Mosqueda placed second and third among graduate students. Angeles’ research focused on transplanted tomato response to pre-plant herbicides, and the other entries’ research was the same as listed for their February awards.

Senior Pahoua Yang (Fresno) added third place in the poster presentation on glyphosate-resistant and susceptible jungle rice biotypes.

On Feb. 9 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mosqueda competed in a poster competition at the Weed Science Society of America. She attended the conference thanks to a grant from Fresno State’s Graduate Net Initiative through the U.S. Department of Education Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities to Hispanic Americans program.

Four Fresno State plant science professors collaborated with the students on their posters — Dr. Sharon Benes, Dr. Florence Cassel Sharma, Dr. David Goorahoo and Dr. Anil Shrestha.

Other Fresno State students who competed in the conferences included graduate students Sangeeta Bansal, TariLee Frigulti, Jacob Hurst, Annabel Rodriguez, Eeva Sharma, Katrina Steinhauer and Yue Wun and undergraduate students Julie Pedraza and Omar Robles.

From Jan. 25 to 26 at the California Irrigation Institute annual conference in Sacramento, Tou was among eight Jordan College students met with industry professionals and attended thanks to scholarships from the Center for Irrigation Technology and the California Irrigation Institute. Other student attendees included juniors Aldo Garcia and Rigoberto Guzman, senior Stephanie Chavez and graduate students Arthish Bhaskar, Annabel Rodriguez, Josue Samano and Nikhil Shinde.