My research dealt with using biostimulants as environmentally friendly alternatives to fungicides, for preventing dollar spot disease, which is one of the most prevalent disease that affects turfgrass on golf courses worldwide. My research will hopefully help to identify species and cultivars of turfgrass that respond positively to various biostimulant applications and therefore have a lower disease incidence. This will potentially allow golf course managers to use fewer fungicides in the future by switching to biostimulant applications, which will reduce the environmental impact that they have on the surrounding ecosystems.
As a graduate student it is important to be flexible and adaptable to change as you work through your degree. Becoming a graduate student allows you to develop your professional brand, while contributing to academic literature.
Being a graduate student at U of G is a wonderful opportunity. There is a fantastic support system here to help you progress and succeed in research, made up of faculty, support staff and other graduate students.
See graduate school as an opportunity to grow in many different ways. UofG has plenty of wonderful research opportunities, and a big part of being a researcher is the chance to communicate your research to different audiences. Graduate school is an awesome opportunity to become a more well rounded person from developing problem solving skills as a researcher to sharpening communication skills, all of which are crucial for any walk of life you end up travelling down.
The Biodiversity Institute/Centre for Biodiversity Genomics is the IB departments best-kept secret, in my opinion! There are endless opportunities available if you take initiative.
Make sure you need grad school for your future career before you do it. Reach out to other grad students while you're in undergrad; most people will be more than happy to share their experiences.
Do your research: on the lab, on the faculty, on the department and on the city itself. There are so many different programs/departments and it's imperative you know what you're getting into. Speak to students that are currently in the lab or have recently graduated to get an idea of how things work. There are going to be some tough times in your program and you want to make sure you're surrounded by people that want to support you and help you get through, to be successful.
