CFAES Give Today
Plant Pathology

Department of Plant Pathology

CFAES

We Believe That No One Should Go Hungry

Plant Pathology student


Elizabeth Roche is studied plant pathology to help improve food production worldwide.

Her journey started as a Metro High School student in Columbus, when she was selected to participate in the Global Youth Institute in Des Moines, Iowa.

The Global Youth Institute is hosted by the World Food Prize Foundation, founded by Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Father of the Green Revolution.  Borlaug is credited with saving millions from famine with groundbreaking improvements disease-resistant wheat varieties, vastly improving wheat production around the world.

Inspired by Borlaug, Elizabeth enrolled at Ohio State, where she completed a Plant Health Management major and is pursing a graduate degree.  Along the way, she did an exciting Borlaug-Ruan internship at CIMMYT, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico last year, and a Wallace Carver internship at the USDA in Fort Detrick, Maryland, and another summer at the U.D. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

Elizabeth went on to complete her B.S. Agriculture - Plant Pathology, and her Master in Plant Health Management.  She's applying real world lessons to tackle global problems.  And maybe someday, no one will have to go hungry.