Profile picture for Wardah Noor Syeda
swnoor2@illinois.edu

Office Hours

Summer 2025: M, T, W, TH, F: 9-5PM

Research Areas

Ecology
Entomology - Research - Agricultural entomology
Entomology - Research - Behavior, physiology, and genomics of social insects
Entomology - Research - Bioinspiration
Entomology - Research - Chemical communication and insect-plant interactions
Entomology - Research - Conservation biology
Entomology - Research - Landscape-scale ecology
Entomology - Research - Molecular evolution, biodiversity, and systematics
Evolution & Systematics
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PEEC Graduate Student -- Advisor: Chris Dietrich
INHS Research Assistant -- Advisor: Chris Dietrich and Valeria Trivellone

Research Interests

  • Molecular Phylogenetics of phytoplasmas across natural and agricultural ecosystems
  • Comparative Genomics and evolutionary inference using multi-locus gene datasets
  • Species Delimitation and resolving gene tree discordance in uncultured plant pathogens
  • Temporal Evolution of microbial lineages through time-calibrated phylogenies
  • Host–Pathogen Co-evolution and ecological niche influence on phytoplasma diversification
  • Bioinformatic Approaches to gene tree-species tree reconciliation (e.g., ASTRAL)
  • Evolutionary Stasis and Radiation in early-diverging microbial lineages
  • Phylogenetic Signal Variation across genes and its impact on microbial taxonomy

Research Description

Phytoplasma bacteria cause devastating diseases of agricultural crops worldwide but this group of bacteria is still relatively poorly known and the insect vectors of most previously known strains remain unknown. The planned dissertation research is important because it will reveal associations between insects, plants and plant-pathogenic bacteria, enabling us to develop models that predict the likelihood of disease outbreaks in specific regions based on the composition of the flora and insect fauna, and the distribution of phytoplasma bacteria.

Education

Bsc Biotechnology, Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

  • 3.81 CGPA, Silver Medalist
  • Dissertation: Exploration of Bacterial Communities in Khewra Salt Mine Using 16s rRNA Sequencing
  • 1 Chancellor Honor Roll, 7 Dean Honor Roll
  • Quaid-e-Azam Medal Nominee 2023

Grants

National Science Foundation (NSF) 

Awards and Honors

  • Best Final Year Project on Industrial Open House Bioscience Department, 2023
  • Student of the Semester in Introduction to Management 2023
  • Chancellor's Honor Roll 2022
  • Dean Honor Roll 2019 - 2023
  • 1st Position HULT PRIZE On Campus '20 for EverPak- Organic Fertilizer
  • 2nd Position HITEC E-Olympiad'21 for EverPak- Organic Fertilizer

Highlighted Publications

Abstract Publications:

  1. Syeda Wardah Noor, Sara Arshad, Syed Muhammed Abdullah, Sahar Fazal. "Mining of Khewra Salt Mine for Halophiles." 11th International Conference on Biological and Computational Sciences (CBICS-2023). October 28th, 2023
  2. Syeda Wardah Noor, Sara Arshad, Syed Muhammed Abdullah, Sahar Fazal. "Exploration of Bacterial Communities in Khewra Salt Mine Using 16S rRNA Sequencing." International Conference on Biological and Medical Sciences (ICBMS-2023). August 6th, 2023. https://pjmhsonline.com/index.php/pjmhs/issue/view/12

Recent Publications

Noor, S. W., Dietrich, C. H., & Trivellone, V. (Year). Insights into phytoplasma lineages: Evaluating single-locus and multilocus trees from next-generation sequencing data. Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Retrieved from IPWG2025-WorkshopProgram_web.pdf

Noor, S. W., Arshad, S., Abdullah, S. M., & Fazal, S. (2023, August 6). Exploration of bacterial communities in Khewra Salt Mine using 16S rRNA sequencing. Paper presented at the International Conference on Biological and Medical Sciences (ICBMS-2023). Retrieved from https://pjmhsonline.com/index.php/pjmhs/issue/view/12