{"id":214085,"date":"2022-10-06T14:36:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T18:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/?p=214085"},"modified":"2023-11-15T18:11:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T23:11:59","slug":"connecting-field-and-lab-with-an-eye-toward-extension-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/news\/connecting-field-and-lab-with-an-eye-toward-extension-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting Field and Lab with an Eye Toward Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Raleigh native, Duncan McSorley, is only a junior and has already made an impact on his home state. As a student in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences<\/a>, McSorley has spent the past year and a half conducting both lab work and fieldwork to address plant diseases impacting North Carolina farmers. His dream of becoming an Extension specialist runs in the family \u2013 McSorley\u2019s grandfather was raised on a tobacco and dairy farm and spent part of his career as a Cooperative Extension agent in Claiborne County, TN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew that I wanted to work outside and I wanted to work with people, so I\u2019ve always been interested in the idea of doing extension as soon as I understood what that career entailed,\u201d McSorley says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the summer of 2021, McSorley participated in the Extension Summer Internship Program in the Transylvania County office. He combined his county extension work with one of four available N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative<\/a> (N.C. PSI) internships. Through the N.C. PSI internship, McSorley began working with Inga Meadows<\/a>, an Extension plant pathology specialist based at the Mountain Research Station<\/a>, on a preliminary informational video about the Plant Aid Project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Duncan
McSorley has loved spending his summers working outside in the mountains. Photo credit: Duncan McSorley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was really refreshing to have such an engaged undergraduate student in the lab,\u201d says Meadows. \u201cHaving such intelligent and motivated people in my program, such as Duncan, inspires me to be better at my job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to his work as an N.C. PSI intern on the Plant Aid Project video, McSorley was invited to work on the project in Jean Ristaino\u2019s lab<\/a> back in Raleigh during the academic year. The Plant Aid Project<\/a> is developing cost-effective sensors and data systems to enhance plant disease detection at earlier stages than is currently observable. One of the methods for doing so is through DNA extraction and identification in the field with the use of microneedle patches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McSorley\u2019s primary contribution to the project in the lab was creating those patches from scratch. \u201cIt\u2019s a little sticker that has microscopic needles on it that you press onto a diseased leaf. When you wash it off, you\u2019re able to use that sample to run a DNA amplification to identify whether or not there\u2019s a pathogen,\u201d McSorley explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"a<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bringing his work full circle, McSorley was able to return to the mountains this past summer as a Kelman Scholar at the Mountain Research Station under Meadows\u2019 mentorship. The Kelman Scholars Program<\/a>, from the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, offers summer research internships to undergraduate students interested in the biological sciences. Throughout his internship, McSorley conducted field-based vegetable pathology research and planned and executed the first field trial for the Plant Aid sensors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To top it off, McSorley also presented at the Mountain Research Station Field Day and the Tomato Field Day at the Mountain Horticulture Crops Research Station<\/a>. \u201cI feel a lot more confident in my ability to speak publicly and take complicated research concepts and explain them so people can appreciate the importance of what we\u2019re doing and why they should care about it,\u201d McSorley says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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McSorley honed his public speaking skills at two field days during the summer. Photo credit: Duncan McSorley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When asked about his prospects as a future Extension specialist, Meadows says, \u201cwatching Duncan present at two field days was impressive. He is a natural-born Extension specialist, so I see it as a no-brainer!\u201d The past two summers working at research stations have solidified McSorley\u2019s desire to pursue extension as a career. \u201cNot everyone has been in a lab or stepped foot on NC State\u2019s campus,\u201d McSorley says. \u201cBut that\u2019s one of the cool things about extension \u2013 it\u2019s really important to have people who can create the connection between communities across the state and NC State.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n