Our Team

The Whitehill Lab Christmas Tree Genetics program consists of many different individuals, each brings their own form of creativity to the project.

Justin Whitehill Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Christmas Tree Genetics Program
Dr. Whitehill received his PhD in Plant Pathology from The Ohio State University with a dissertation on ‘Mechanisms of resistance in ash against the emerald ash borer’. After completing his PhD, Dr. Whitehill joined the lab of Dr. Jörg Bohlmann – a pioneer in the field of forest genomics – at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where he developed and identified genomic resources and tools to advance efforts to rapidly detect insect resistance traits in the provincial spruce breeding programs. The Christmas Tree Genetics Program and the Whitehill lab at NC State University employs a range of genetic, breeding, genomic, molecular, biochemical, microscopic, ecological, entomological, and pathological techniques, designed to tackle the challenges facing Christmas tree production in North Carolina.

Angela Chiang

Research Associate / Laboratory Manager
Angela is the lab manager of the Christmas Tree Genetics Program and also works with the Forest Biotechnology Group. She helps with managing day-to-day activities in the lab, such as lab organization, ordering, and coordinating operations within the lab. She has a Bachelor of Science majoring in Biochemistry from the University of Victoria in Victoria, BC, Canada. She has over 10 years of lab experience working on the bench at the University of British Columbia. She is well-versed in molecular biology techniques and is experienced in cloning, transformation (bacteria, yeast, plant), protein expression and purification, DNA and RNA extraction, qPCR, terpene extraction, and GC-MS.

Priya Rajarapu

Research Associate / Entomologist
My research since the past 14 years has focused on understanding the physiological basis of insect adaptation to unique niches. I am interested in dissecting the molecular mechanisms of insect-plant coevolution using cutting molecular biology and biochemistry techniques. I have studied physiological adaptation strategies of herbivorous insects to overcome host plant defenses, recalcitrant diets, and virus infection. Outcomes of my research address broad ecological and evolutionary concepts such as invasion biology, nutritional ecology and insect-plant-virus interactions. I am well recognized for working with challenging and least studied insect systems

Will Kohlway

Postdoctoral Research Scholar
Will is currently a Functional Genomics Postdoctoral research scholar working with the Christmas Tree Genetics Program. His research is primarily on the use of molecular techniques and next-generation sequencing for identifying the underlying genetic basis of important breeding traits, such as Phytophthora root rot resistance in fir species, and its use in developing genetic markers for future breeding programs.

Adarsha Devihalli

Ph.D. Student
Adarsha is a Research Assistant in the CTG program. His doctoral research focuses on studying the Phytophthora root rot disease in Fir Christmas trees. He completed his master’s in plant biotechnology from UAS, Bangalore. He was a Khorana scholar in 2018 and did his summer research internship at BTI, Cornell University. He is interested in understanding the plant-pathogen/pest interaction at molecular level. He loves questioning the ways of pathogenesis in plants and address these issues by adopting modern genomics/genetic tools.

Sai Karthik

Ph.D. Student
Sai is a Doctoral student in the Department of Forestry and Environmental resources. He is from Warangal, India. He has a major in Entomology from UAS-Dharwad. His major research focus is studying insect-plant interactions through chemical ecology and molecular biology approaches. Sai joined the Christmas Tree Genetics lab in August, 2021. His prospective research at NC State includes unraveling the interactions of Fraser fir with elongate hemlock scale and balsam wooly adelgid.

Will Baldwin

Masters Student
Will is a masters student in the Christmas Tree Genetics Program studying Fraser Fir terpene variability and climate adaptation. Will received a B.S. in Horticultural Science and a B.A. in History from NC State in 2021.

Caleb Cothron

Masters Student
Caleb began working as a research assistant with CTG in the fall of 2022. His Masters research involves studying Phytophthora root rot disease and its distribution in the mountains of North Carolina. Caleb received his bachelors of science degree in forest management From NC State University in the fall of 2019. After graduating Caleb moved to Virginia to work as a consulting forester for two years and then moved back to work for the NC Forest Service collecting Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data for a few months before joining CTG where he is now pursuing a masters of science in forestry with a minor in plant pathology.

Megh Dedhia

Masters student
Megh is a Computer Science grad student. He began working with CTG in late Fall 2023 and mainly works on updating content on the website and building a robust database- ROOTS that aims to serve as the single access point for all genotype data that the lab works on. He completed his B.Tech in Computer Engineering from Mumbai University and is now specializing in secure large-scale systems and efficient deep learning.

Matthew Moore

Undergraduate Research Assistant
Matthew is a junior in the forestry department at North Carolina State University studying Environmental Technology and Management with a minor in Renewable Energy Assessment.

Sophie Gay

Sophie is a senior at NCSU studying Plant Biology with a concentration in physiology and molecular biology. Beginning work for the CTG lab as a junior Spring of 2023, Sophie has worked on viability testing for seed lots from the lab’s conifer seed bank, as well as organization and record-keeping for the seed lot data. Moving forward as an undergraduate research assistant, she will be doing work with conifer seed histology and resin composition profiles.

Ross Whetten

Professor Emeritus
Applications of molecular biology methods to solve practical problems in management of natural or planted populations of forest trees, with an emphasis on conifer species native to the southeastern USA. Massively-parallel or “next-generation” DNA sequencing technologies provide new opportunities to detect and analyze genetic variation in forest tree populations, and my research is focused on development and application of both new laboratory methods to generate data and new analytical methods to understand how genetic variation is related to variation in traits of ecological or economic importance.

John Frampton

Professor Emeritus
Christmas Tree Genetics and Breeding expert.
Christmas tree genetics, genetic conservation of Fraser fir; propagation and use of clones in forest tree species, host-pathogen interactions in forest diseases.

Allison Parrish

Undergraduate Research Assistant
Allison is a senior at North Carolina State University pursuing a degree in Environmental Sciences with a minor in Plant Biology. Allison began working with the Christmas Tree Genetics Program in January of 2021 as an intern. After completing her internship Allison joined the CTG program as a part-time undergraduate research assistant. Allison is gaining crucial lab skills and experience with the NC State CTG program. To date she has assisted with terpene extraction, somatic embryogenesis initiation and preparation of microscopy samples using a Leica UC7 ultramicrotome.

Lauren Stevens

Undergraduate Research Assistant
Lauren is a junior at North Carolina State University

William Andrew Whittier

CAMCORE-Cooperative Research Associate
Andy has been a research forester with the Camcore group at NCSU since 2003. In 2015 he relocated to the Asheville, NC area in order to be closer to some of his research involving tree species in the Appalachian Mountains. With him located in western NC the Christmas Tree Genetics Program began to utilize his expertise in managing and measuring their numerous Fraser fir plantings throughout the region.

Kaley Patton

Research Assistant
Kaley is a senior at North Carolina State University studying Biology and Environmental Sciences with a minor in Genetics.

Emma Grabowski

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Yannick Favre

Research Associate / Tissue Culture Specialist
Yannick joined the CTG team after a twelve year career in the biotech industry followed by two years working as a farmer in rural North Carolina. In the CTG labs he is the tissue culture specialist and currently works on developing a protocol for Fraser Fir micropropagation and engineering. Yannick also focuses on other conifer species such as Sugar Pine, doing cryopreservation of embryos for long term storage. He received a technological diploma from the Claude Bernard University of Lyon in France in the field of Agronomy and Genetic Engineering. Yannick also received a B.Sc. in Biology from NCSU.

Alex Gaines

Undergraduate Research Assistant
Alex is a senior at NCSU pursuing degrees in biochemistry, environmental science, and a minor in biomanufacturing. Starting at the CTG lab in the beginning of 2022 as an intern, Alex has since learned how to maintain the CTG lab’s clone bank and initiate new somatic embryogenic clusters from conifer seeds. Continuing as an undergraduate research assistant, he will be working to develop Fraser fir as a model organism for future experiments.