W. Walker Spivey

Associate Plant Breeder
Plant and Environmental Sciences Department, PeeDee Research and Education Center

Office: Pee Dee Research & Education Center
Phone: 843-877-2197

Email: wwspive@clemson.edu

Educational Background

M.S. PES - Crop Physiology
Clemson University 2023

B.S. Plant and Environmental Sciences: Agricultural Biotechnology
Clemson University 2021

Profile

I am serving as an associate plant breeder in the lab of Dr. Jenna Hershberger. My responsibilities include maintaining germplasm, organizing large data sets and managing field trials for the Hershberger vegetable breeding program. I also work on developing new phenomic tools to improve breeding pipelines for various crops including lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and corn (Zea mays) as a PhD student in the lab of Dr. Trevor Rife.

I completed my M.S. of Plant and Environmental Sciences in the Narayanan crop ecophysiology lab in August 2023. My M.S. research focused on characterizing heat-tolerance mechanisms in the peanut crop by evaluating leaf lipidome alterations and physiological responses.

Research Interests

I am interested in working on issues related to crop improvement of speciality crops, phenomics, environmental science, food security, and plant breeding.

Publications

Spivey, W.W., Rustgi, S., Welti, R., Roth, M.R., Burow, M.D., Bridges Jr, W.C. and Narayanan, S., 2023. Lipid modulation contributes to heat stress adaptation in peanut. Frontiers in Plant Science, 14.

Spivey, W.W., Williamson, Z., Seiter, J., Abrahamian, P., Wang, H., Greene, J., and Cieniewicz, E.J. 2023. Analysis of cotton leafroll dwarf virus P0 gene sequences from South Carolina reveals low variability among isolates. Plant Disease.

Spivey, W. W., Burow, M.D., Rustgi, S., Bridges, W.C., & Narayanan, S. (2022) Characterization of a Peanut Breeding Population for Heat Tolerance [Poster]. ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD. https://scisoc.confex.com/scisoc/2022am/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/141413.

Spivey, W.W., Van Bloem, S.J. (Dec. 2020). Forest Management in the “Clemson Forest”. The Blue Heron. DeBordieu Colony Community Association, p3.

Slow Sand Filters for Horticulture: What’s Old Has Become New
J Majsztrik, NL Bell, L Kome, WW Spivey, SA White - 2019 ASHS Annual Conference, 2019.

Wetland Plant Bioremediation of Paclobutrazol from Nursery and Greenhouse Runoff
W. Walker Spivey, Emily Jordan, Devin Orr, Natasha Bell, Laura Garcia-Chance - Clemson Biological Sciences Annual Student Symposium - Spring 2019.

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