Elizabeth Chin and Erica Vonasek were granted $40,000 through two awards from the Robert Mondavi Industry Partnership Program. Elizabeth Chin is a first-year Ph.D. student working in the laboratory of Foods for Health Institute researcher and Assistant Professor Carolyn Slupsky. Chin's research is supported by Roll Global, and examines the effects of Citrus Greening Disease.

Erica Vonasek is a Ph.D. candidate working the laboratory of Foods for Health Institute researcher and Assistant Professor Nitin Nitin. Vonasek's research is supported by Del Monte, and is aimed at developing unique material formulations that can improve partitioning of antimicrobial agents in biofilms, facilitate degradation of the extracellular matrix of the biofilm, and target specific microbes using bacteriophages. 

Read full coverage of the fellowships from UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences news service.