CURRENT STUDENTS
STUDENT RESOURCES
CURRENT STUDENTS FAQs
For M.S. students, your advisor when you are admitted to KAUST is the Program Chair. For Ph.D. students, your advisor is your PI (supervisor) whose lab you have been accepted in to.
Yes, you can change your advisor. M.S. students are advised to do so if/when they begin their thesis or directed research. Ph.D. students do have the ability to change advisors, but the overall impact to the Ph.D. project, as well as the time left to finish the Ph.D., could be significant. This will have to be taken into account before approval.
M.S. students need 36 credits (combination of courses and research is specific to your program).
Ph.D. students need 6 credits of 300-level coursework and will earn dissertation research credit each semester until they defend (no minimum credits established, although there is a minimum residency requirement of 2.5 years).
M.S. students get all university holidays (Eid Al-Fitr, Eid Al-Adha, Spring break).
Ph.D. students get university holidays and three weeks of annual/vacation leave per calendar year to be taken in agreement with your PI.
Yes. Drop and Add deadlines are on the academic calendar.
Your GPC can help you request these from the Registrar’s Office, or you can contact them directly at RegistrarHelpDesk@KAUST.EDU.SA
Latest Events
Abstract:
Carotenoid-derived signaling molecules such as zaxinone and abscisic acid (ABA) play crucial roles in plant growth, development, and stress response. Zaxinone, a bioactive plant compound, is essential for rice growth, and enhancing its content significantly boosts rice yield. However, its synthesis is costly, prompting the development of an easy-to-synthesize zaxinone mimics (MiZax) with great potential for smart agriculture. In this talk, I will introduce the effects of MiZax3 and MiZax5 applications on paddy and upland rice under reduced fertilization. Our results highlight the potential of MiZax to reduce fertilizer usage.
Next, I will focus on the functional study of a rice zaxinone-induced ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter OsPDR11. Our results show that OsPDR11 is a plasma membrane-localized ABA importer, making it the first ABA transporter in the rice ABC protein family. Functional characterization of OsPDR11 mutants and overexpression lines revealed its critical role in rice development and yield, ABA homeostasis, and rhizospheric interactions. These findings underscore the importance of OsPDR11 in zaxinone and ABA regulation, development, and its potential for crop improvement.
Bio:
Pei-Yu completed her BSc in Agronomy at National Chung-Hsing University in 2015, followed by an MSc in Plant Biology at National Taiwan University in 2017. Later, she moved to KAUST to start her PhD studies in the Plant Science program at the Center for Desert Agriculture under the supervision of Professor Salim Al-Babili. In her PhD thesis, she explored the function of an ABC transporter involved in the allocation of the apocarotenoids zaxinone and ABA.
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