Heeduk Oh
Bio
Heeduk Oh is a PhD student whose research focuses on improving the shelf-life of blueberry fruits as part of the VacCAP project (https://www.vacciniumcap.org/). Blueberries are soft fruits and can soften rapidly during postharvest storage and transport. Loss of quality leads to reduced profitability and negative consumer experience. Delaying softening or breeding cultivars with prolonged storability/shelf-life would significantly improve the market life of blueberries and reduce food loss. The aim of this study is to understand the key players determining fruit shelf-life in blueberry and elucidate the underlying genetics to assess the potential of exploiting molecular approaches for breeding programs.
Lead Advisors: Dr. Massimo Iorizzo and Dr. Penelope Perkins-Veazie
Education
MS Horticultural Science Seoul National University
BS Horticultural Science Seoul National University
Publications
- Exploring shelf-life predictability of appearance traits and fruit texture in blueberry , POSTHARVEST BIOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY (2024)
- Blueberry Cell Wall Polysaccharide Composition of Three Distinct Fruit Firmness Phenotypes , ACS FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (2023)
Groups
Honors and Awards
- 2022-2025 Rockey FFAR Fellow (Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR)
- 2022 Honorable Mention for the Spring 2022 NCALS Foundation Board Student Research Competition
- 2022 1st place for the Warren S. Barham PhD Graduate Student Paper Award (Annual Meeting of the Southern Region American Society for Horticultural Science)
- 2021 UKC 2021 fellowship (Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association)
- 2021 KSEA-KUSCO graduate scholarship (Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association)
- 2016 Outstanding award for oral presentation (Annual Autumn Conference of the Korean Society for Horticultural Science)
- 2016 Lecture and research scholarship (Seoul National University)
- 2015 Scholarship from Brain Korea 21 Plus (National Research Foundation of Korea)
- 2014 Gold prize for ‘Next feeding the world idea’ award (DuPont Korea Inc.)
- 2009-2011 Scholarship for superior academic performance (Seoul National University)