In August, we saw our tomato plants flourishing with flowers and fruit. With that we also concluded Katie Stewart’s internship with i-Cultiver. Katie is pursuing her degree from Contra Costa College. Katie did her 2018 Summer  internship with i-Cultiver working on tomato and potato projects, which are in collaboration with Britt Koskella (UC Berkeley), and Kent McCue, (ARS/USDA).

Katie worked on soil and plant tissue DNA extractions and plant phenotypic measurements. As a fast learner, she picked up the work very fast and was able to take lead on activities assigned to her with little supervision. Priyanka Mehta (i-Cultiver) was Katie’s mentor during the internship).

Delivering as committed and always punctual, Katie is equally at comfort with work in the Greenhouse as she is in the lab. We were really impressed to see her perform her lab duties best aligned to GLP (Good Lab Practices).

She proved to be a big asset in ramping up the momentum on the tomato project. We wish her the best with her course and hope she is able to return next year as well.