A doctoral student in the Soil Science specialization area, Matthew is from Gaithersburg, MD and received his BS in Plant Sciences from the University of Maryland. He will be conducting his research in Senegal on the microbial communities associated with the rhizosphere of the shrubs P. reticulatum and G. senegalensis and their capacity to stimulate adjacent crop growth and improve xeric soils of the African Sahel.

Richard Dick, advisor