Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 FFAR Fellows Lightning Talk Competition!

The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research Fellows, the FFAR Fellows, are 203 PhD students from 40+ universities across the U.S. and Canada studying agronomy, food science, genomics, biosystems engineering, and a dozen other fields in food and agriculture.

What brings these graduate students together? The desire to work with others to address the grand challenges in food and agriculture while building the teamwork, leadership, and change-making skills needed to meet those challenges. The annual FFAR Fellows Lightning Talk Competition is a way for fellows to create and practice their science communication skills in a supportive peer-mentorship environment, and then share their talks with the public. A committee of science professionals select the winners.

To learn more about the FFAR Fellows, funded by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and industry and other sponsors, and managed by the College of Agriculture and Life Science at NC State University, explore our website FFARFellows.org and follow us on social (see links at the top of the page).

First Place

2025-08-15T16:12:47-04:00

Biofilm Busting: Do Keystones Hold the Key

By Zach Vice, 2023-2026 FFAR Fellow

Second Place

2025-08-15T16:14:29-04:00

Employing an Additional Set of “Eyes” to Select the Stay-Green Trait

By Mei Ling Wong, 2022-2025 FFAR Fellow

Third Place

2025-08-15T16:15:17-04:00

Understanding How Agriculture Shapes the Microbiome in Corn Leaves Will Make Grain and Feed Safer to Eat

By Theo Newbold, 2023-2026 FFAR Fellow

Other finalists in the 2025 competition

2025-08-03T22:22:35-04:00

Film Coatings are the First Line of Defense to Protect Wine Grapes from Wildfire Smoke

By Lindsay Garcia, 2022-2025 FFAR Fellow

2025-08-03T22:20:52-04:00

Cows are Moo-ving on from Methane

By Kairi Tanaka, 2023-2026 FFAR Fellow

2025-08-03T22:46:31-04:00

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

By Grace Vincent, 2023-2026 FFAR Fellow

2025-08-03T22:14:52-04:00

On-Farm Studies are Critical to Understanding Best Practices for Improving Soil Health

By Erin Jackson, 2023-2026 FFAR Fellow

2025-08-03T22:42:47-04:00

On and Around-farm Land Use Can Impact Natural Enemy Numbers and Associated Biological Pest Control in Orchards

By Emma Waltman, 2023-2026 FFAR Fellow

2025-08-03T22:44:36-04:00

Targeted DNA Insertion in Plants by CRISPR-Transposases

By Yunqing Wang, 2023-2026 FFAR Fellow

2025-08-03T22:19:13-04:00

Protecting Bees Starts with Protecting the One Who Starts It All – The Queen

By Erika Ibarra-Garibay, 2023-2026 FFAR Fellow