Jennifer Wilker received the prize for the best student oral presentation at the 2017 Biennial Meeting of the Bean Improvement Co-operative (BIC) held at Michigan State University, in East Lansing Michigan Oct 29 - Nov 1, 2017. Her talk was entitled "Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation in the Mesoamerican Genepool of Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)".

The BIC meeting addressed a wide variety of topics including studies of: the application of various conventional and molecular approaches to improve bean quality and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, as well bean genomics, agronomy, seed quality, effects on human health and international diversity.