Andres Reyes Gaige

I am an International student pursing graduate studies in the United States. I was born and raised in Lima, Peru. During high school, I went through the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma program. After obtaining the IB Diploma I became more aware of all the opportunities to study in the USA. I did two years of college in Peru at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (2003-2005), and after that I transferred my college credits and IB Diploma classes to Wichita State University (WSU) to pursue undergraduate studies. At WSU, I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a minor in Chemistry in December of 2007 with magna cum laude honors. During my senior year of college, I started applying at different programs to start a Master of Science (MS) in Biology. I got accepted at WSU to do a MS in Biology with a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) offer. In August of 2008 I came back to WSU to pursue my master's studies. During that time, I researched the soilborne pathogen Macrophomina phaseolina using the model plant Medicago truncatula. That research allowed me to publish 2 research papers at peer-reviewed journals, and I graduated in July of 2010. After that, I went back to work in Peru, and started applying to PhD programs. I got accepted at Kansas State University (KSU) department of Plant Pathology and started the program in January of 2012. My expected date of graduation is during June/July of 2016.