Graduate student Sarah Graham was recently featured in the CORESTA international newsletter for April 2025. CORESTA stands for Cooperation Centre for Scientific Research Relative to Tobacco. These researcher spotlights help introduce future graduates and industry personnel to a wide audience.

Graham describes in her spotlight how she was introduced to the tobacco industry through her family, who has raised burley tobacco for 35 years in Southwest Virginia. She also talks about where she sees the tobacco industry in the next decade, and how she believes the industry can tackle some of its greatest challenges.

Graham received her B.S. in Crop and Soil Sciences from Virginia Tech before being accepted into the graduate program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Graham currently works under Dr. Mitchell Richmond and is about to begin work towards her Ph.D. in Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences.

To read the full spotlight on Sarah Graham, click here.

Are you a member of the Department of Plant Sciences and would like to be featured? If so, let us know by emailing Victoria Cavaliere at vcavalie@utk.edu.

By Victoria Cavaliere