Mark Newell

Department of Agronomy
College of Agriculture
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011 USA

Education

Ph.D., Plant Breeding, Iowa State University, December 2011 Minor: Statistics
Dissertation: Survey of the level of population structure and linkage desequilibrium in oat germplasm
and its implications on genome-wide association studies, using association analysis to identify loci
associated with increased beta-glucan in a world collection of oat germplasm, and a novel approach
to identifying the number of mixtures in high-dimensional data.
Major Advisors: Drs. William Beavis and Paul Scott

M.S., Plant Breeding and Genetics, Colorado State University, 2008
Thesis: Combining resistance to white mold from common and scarlet runner bean.
Major Advisor: Dr. Mark Brick

B.S., Forest Biology, Colorado State University, 2005
Major Advisor: Rocky Coleman

Teaching / Experience

• Chair judge for the middle school State Science and Technology Fair of Iowa, Iowa State University, 2009 and 2011.
• Middle and high school judge for the State Science and Technology Fair of Iowa, Iowa State University, 2008.
• Graduate teaching assistant for introduction to agronomy course, included updating the plant breeding
  section of the course text, Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Spring 2008.
• Graduate teaching assistant for an upper division genetics course, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fall 2005.
• Herbarium intern, Biology Department, Colorado State University, August 2004 to May 2005.
  
  

Research Skills

• Sufficient in applications using SAS and R statistical software
• Implementation of various experimental designs and analyses
• Experience in implementation of genome-wide association studies
• Sufficient experience in multivariate statistics
• Experience dealing with introgression of valuable alleles into elite material

Fellowships

NSF-GK12 fellowship, June 2010 - May 2011, Iowa State University. This includes being an eighth grade middle school classroom visiting scientist one day per week, major responsibilities include one-on-one
student interaction for science fair projects, developing interactive classroom experiences for students,
developing classroom content, and inspiring students’ interests in STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics) fields.

Awards

Gamma Sigma Delta, Honor Society of Agriculture, 2011 to present.

C.R Weber Award (October 2010) for outstanding student in plant science, Iowa State University.

Xi Sigma Pi (2003), International honors society for students in Natural Resources, Colorado State
University.

Publications

Newell MA, Cook D, Hoffman H, Jannink J-L (November 2011) Determining the number of clusters for high-dimensional data with application to exploring crop population structure, given Population Genetic graduate level course, 15 November 2011, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA.

Newell MA, FG Asoro, MP Scott, PJ White, WD Beavis, J-L Jannink. 2011. Genome-wide association study for oat (Avena sativa L.) beta-glucan content using germplasm of worldwide origin. To be submited by December 2011.

Newell MA,HJ Kim, FG Asoro, A Moran Lauter, PJ White, MP Scott, and J-L Jannink. 2011. Micro-enzymatic evaluation of oat beta-glucan for high-throughput phenotyping. To be submitted to Cereal Chemistry by 10 November 2011.

Newell MA. 2011. Outreach education - techniques to engage middle school students. Submitted to Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy on 18 July 2011.

Newell MA, D Cook, H Hofmann, J-L Jannink. 2011. An algorithm for deciding the number of clusters and validation using simulated data with application to exploring crop population structure. Submitted to The Annals of Applied Statistics on 11 July 2011.

Asoro F.G., M.A. Newell, W.D. Beavis, M.P. Scott and J.-L. Jannink. 2011. Accuracy and training population design for genomic selection in elite North American oats. Plant Genome 4:132-144.

Newell MA, Cook D, Tinker NA, Jannink J-L (2010) Population structure and linkage disequilibrium in
oat (Avena sativa L.): implications for genome-wide association studies. Theor Appl Genet.

Presentations

Jannink J-L, F Asoro, MA Newell, MP Scott, N Tinker, C Wight (October 2011) “Association studies on oat beta-glucan content using historical uniform nursery data.” CSSA International Annual Meetings, 19 October 2011, San Antonio, Texas, USA.

Newell MA, Meade K (April 2011). “Designing plants for food, fuel, and fiber,” hands-on presentation
given at the Program for Women in Science and Engineering ‘Taking the Road Less Traveled’
Conference, April 14, 2011, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA

Newell MA, Cook D, Hoffman H, Jannink J-L (March 2011). “Determining the number of clusters for
high-dimensional data with application to exploring crop population structure,” given at the
Statistical Computing Discussion Group, March 25, 2011, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA.

Jannink J-L, Newell M, Asoro FG (October 2010). “Genomic selection in the presence of strong
subpopulation structure,” given at the CSSA International Annual Meetings, November 2, 2010, Long
Beach, California, USA.

Brick M, Byrne P, Brown G, Newell M, Schwartz H (October 2010). “Genetic resistance to white mold
derived from multiple sources of common and scarlet runner bean,” given at the CSSA International
Annual Meetings, November 1, 2010, Long Beach, California, USA.

Newell MA (April 2010). “Extent of linkage disequilibrium in oat,” presentation given at the American
Oat Workers Conference, April 19-21, 2010, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.

Newell MA, Salas-Fernandez M (April 2010). “Designing plants for food, fuel, and fiber,” presentation
given at the Program for Women in Science and Engineering ‘Taking the Road Less Traveled’
Conference, April 8, 2010, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA.

Newell MA, Perez PT (October 2009). “Designing plants for food, fuel, and fiber,” presentation given at
the Program for Women in Science and Engineering ‘Taking the Road Less Traveled’ Conference,
October 21, 2009, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA.