Type: Graduate Students
-
Margaret (Maggie) Phillips
MS Freshwater and Marine Sciences (Zimmer Lab)
Maggie joined the Zimmer lab in Fall 2025. She earned her B.S. in environmental science from the University of New Hampshire in 2019 and then worked on maintaining the public water data network as a hydrologist with the USGS in New Jersey. She is interested in watershed hydrology, biogeochemistry, and…
-
-
Hannia Ramirez Gutierrez
MS Agroecology (Freedman Lab)
Hannia is an M.S. student in the Agroecology program. She joined the Freedman Lab in the Department of Soil Sciences in 2025 after earning a B.S. in Biotechnology Engineering from Tecnológico de Monterrey. Her research focuses on studying plant–microbe interactions in edible crops. Hannia aims to integrate sociological and participatory…
-
-
-
-
Gideon K. Fynaardt
MS Agroecology & Soil Science (Sanford Lab)
Gideon began as a graduate student in Fall of 2024. He earned his BA in Biology—Ecological Science at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, and is currently pursuing a master's degree in Agroecology and Soil Science under the co-advising of Drs. Gregg Sanford and Jeff Hadachek.
-
Yanyu Deng
PhD Soil Science (Zhu-Barker)
Yanyu joined the Zhu-Barker Lab in 2023 as a PhD student. He received his B.S. in Ecology from China Agricultural University and his M.S. in Geography from Peking University. Yanyu’s research focuses on the fate of nitrate in agroecosystems, with particular interest in the mechanisms of denitrification across soil profiles…
-
Soni Ghimire
PhD Soil Science (Freedman Lab)
Soni joined the Freedman lab in June 2023. She earned a B.S. in Agriculture from Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal and an M.S. from Virginia Tech. She is interested in Soil Science, Remote Sensing, and Data Analytics. Her previous work focused on estimating the contributions of soil and cover crop…
-
Clare Doss
MS Agroecology (Ruark Lab)
Clare is a first year MS student in the Agroecology program. She received a BS in Environmental Science from Calvin University. Clare will be working in the Ruark lab looking at nutrient cycling in sandy soils (using potatoes as a context crop). In her free time, Clare enjoys sewing, biking,…
