Graduated with a Masters in Genetics and Biotechnology from BYU. My time at BYU was an opportunity for education in classroom, lab, church, and in the mountains. Things accomplished while at BYU: Hiked the Y, Y mountain, Timp, Zions, Half-ironman, wrote a patent for a fungal endophyte in grass, won a race to the Y, 2005 spud tug champion, 2 time intramural champion (7 time championship match looser), First ever Benson family reunion, Y cycling Team, St. George marathon, Hobbitville, Spoken word & General Conference, biked around Utah lake, and Rock climbing
Things left to accomplish in Utah/Idaho: Swim in the Botany pond, picture with the Joseph Smith Sphinx, Sessions is all Utah temples, Hike the grand Teton, and Canyonlands NP.
I started a Ph.D in Plant Breeding and Genetics at North Carolina State Univ. in Raleigh, in the fall of 2008. I will be working on scab aka fusarium head blight on wheat. I will be deriving molecular markers and linkage maps for qtls associated with disease resistance ( essentially finding genes which protect the plant and tagging the genes so they can be identified/followed in pedigress). I am a member of one of the few schools which doesn't have an "S" at the end of their mascot, the wolfpack.
