Dr. Mostafa Rahnama, Assistant Professor in Biology, is the recipient of the ’23-’24 Scholastic Research Award for his publication “Recent Co-evolution of Two Pandemic Plant Diseases in a Multi-hybrid Swarm” in the journal Nature, Ecology, and Evolution. His research reconstructs the evolution and emergence of two fungal diseases that triggered pandemic outbreaks originating in South America in the mid-1980’s and sheds light on the complex genetic and evolutionary dynamics of these pathogens.