Chawda and Alvaro Ceja named Borlaug Scholars

Two undergraduates in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences – Khushi Chawda and Deysi Alvaro Ceja – have been named to the Borlaug Scholars class of 2024.

The National Association of Plant Breeders’ Borlaug scholarships pair students with an NAPB mentor. The program also will pay Chawda's and Alvaro Ceja’s expenses to attend the NAPB annual meeting, hosted in St. Louis in July. The meeting gives students the opportunity to meet with and learn from leading industry experts. 

“The conference and the mentorship program are rare opportunities that will help me be a better plant breeder,” Chawda said. 

Chawda works on breeding peppers with Allen Van Deynze, director of the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center and associate director of the UC Davis Plant Breeding Center. She is developing jalapeño and bell peppers (also called blocky peppers) that will be resistant to the tomato spotted wilt virus. She also is working toward jalapeños that will be better adapted to mechanical harvesting.

“This would greatly help the processing jalapeño industry by overcoming high labor costs involved in the manual harvesting of peppers,” Chawda explained. 

Alvaro Ceja works with tomatoes in the lab of Bárbara Blanco-Ulate, an associate professor in the department. She uses CRISPR gene editing technology to delete genes responsible for vitamin C degradation. Her goal in removing these genes is to maintain high vitamin C levels in tomatoes after they are harvested. 

“Being selected as a Borlaug Scholar is a huge opportunity,” Alvaro Ceja said. “Surrounding myself with experienced plant breeders will boost my chances of discovering opportunities and creating connections.”