Rottersman’s passion for wheat grows with Rockey Fellowship

Doctoral student Maria Rottersman joins a national fellowship this year that helps early-career scientists pursue their research and develop their careers in food science and agriculture.

Rottersman is now a part of the Rockey Fellowship’s 2024-27 cohort. Hosted by the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research, Rottersman will receive mentoring from industry professionals and have many networking opportunities within her field, while being supported by an annual stipend of $55,000 to cover tuition and living expenses.

Her research focuses on wheat proteins and how to adapt them for people living with celiac disease. “I aim to understand which wheat proteins we can delete or modify to reduce negative immune responses in people with celiac disease, while maintaining the crop’s bread and pasta quality,” she said. 

Rottersman is a part of Jorge Dubcovsky’s lab in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, which partners with the Celiac Disease Foundation. The foundation provides half of the funding Rottersman is receiving through the fellowship. 

From Turkmenistan and back

Food quality is important to Rottersman. “I was always passionate about food and feeding people,” she said. “The combination of plants and genetics to meet people’s needs really appealed to me.” 

That passion has roots in her family background.

Growing up in Illinois, she was surrounded by grasslands. “I took it for granted, so at first, I wasn’t that interested in grasses,” Rottersman said. But, when she interviewed as part of her grad school application, she came to view grasses and grains like wheat in a different light. Dubcovsky explained to her that Turkmenistan was one of the regions in the world where people first domesticated and cultivated wheat. 

Rottersman, whose mother is from Turkmenistan, now sees the crop with renewed admiration. “I’m coming back to my roots and appreciating the grasses.”