Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences Small Fruit and Hop Pathology

Shay graduated from Michigan State University with their Bachelors degrees in Microbiology and Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences. They are pursuing their PhD with Dr. Miles studying themicrobial ecology of blueberry fruits in the context of fruit rots such as anthracnose fruit rot as well as developing genetic tools for studying the pathology of blueberry anthracnose.

Peer Reviewed Publications

1. Szymanski, S.L. and Miles, T.D. 2025. Temporal dynamics and tissue-specific variations of the blueberry phyllosphere mycobiome. Hort. Res. doi:10.1093/hr/uhaf042.
2. Szymanski, S.L, Longely, R.W., Hatlen, R.J., Heger, L., Sharma, N., Bonito, G., Miles, T.D. 2022. The blueberry fruit mycobiome varies by tissue type and fungicide treatment. Phytobiomes. 7(2):208-219.

Awards

Michigan State University Plant Science Fellowship 2019-2021