I have experience in population genetics and taxonomy of flowering (Cornus florida) and Japanese dogwoods (Cornus kousa), popular ornamental trees in North America and some parts of Europe. After completing my master’s dissertation in the Molnar lab (Rutgers University) where I used novel microsatellite markers to genotype a germplasm collection of over 350 different accessions, I joined the Simon Lab. Additionally, during my master’s research, I formalized the botanical names of two hybrid species developed by Dr. Elwin Orton at Rutgers.