Raquel Gomez comes from California’s Central Valley, here she cultivated her passion for plants and agriculture. Upon completing a B.S. in Agricultural Studies and a B.A. in Spanish from California State University, Stanislaus in May of 2017, she joined Dr. Kalcsits’s lab in pursuit of an M.S. in Horticulture. Raquel’s research will focus on the effect of plant growth regulators on bitter pit incidence as well as controlling vigor in Honeycrisp apples using irrigation.
Erica Casagrande Biasuz completed her bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) in Italy. In 2016, she completed her Masters in International Horticulture Science at the University of Bologna, Italy. She recently joined Lee Kalcsits program and is interested in developing new understanding of interactions between fruit tree, rootstocks and soil characteristics aimed at improving production efficiency and fruit quality. Her research focuses on understanding the approach of plant hydraulic conductivities on the water uptake dynamics in the soil-plant-atmosphere system and the link between water and nutrient uptake and distribution in the plant to evaluate rootstock-scion interactions in apple trees.