Madeleine Dumas, graduate student with Clare Casteel in Plant Pathology & Plant-Microbe Biology, has been awarded the Thressa & Earl Stadtman Fellowship. Thressa Stadtman was a Cornell alumna who had a long and successful career as a biochemist at NIH and was a member of the National Academies. The Stadtmans’ gifted an endowment to Cornell to recognize and support outstanding female and underrepresented minority graduate students in CALS with a commitment to research. The Fellowship comes with a $10,000 award to support research and related activity.

Madeleine is a first generation college graduate from an agricultural background. She graduated cum laude from the University of Connecticut where she earned a B.S. degree in Sustainable Plant and Soil Systems and continued in the field of academia through a seasonal position at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station working full-time with plant viruses. She began her graduate studies at Cornell in June 2021 where her research is focused on elucidating the molecular mechanisms behind vector fecundity and viral pathogenesis in plant hosts organisms.

Madeleine was nominated for the Clinton Dewitt Smith fellowship but was recognized by the CALS office of Academic Programs as deserving of the (larger) Stadtman Fellowship award. Congratulations Madeleine!