Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  University of Indianapolis

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  Ecology, evolutionary biology, genetics, polyploidy. I broadly study how plants respond to environmental stress, with particular focus on the genetic mechanisms that allow plants to tolerate damage by animal herbivores.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  When and why did you decide to go into a science career?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  I chose to be a biology major in college because I had interests in pursuing a career in a health profession like dentistry or optometry. In my first year, I found that I enjoyed my biology classes more than I enjoyed the thought of specializing in a health profession, and decided to pursue biology as a career in itself.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  Probably coffee! I like tropical plants and fruit trees, and coffee is both. It is also interesting because it is important economically, culturally, and is shade tolerant so it can be grown indoors as a fun house plant!

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What was the first science experiment you ever designed? How did it turn out?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  One of the first experiments I ever conducted as on ant behavior. I wanted to compare the responses of two species of ants to stressful conditions, and so I flooded their nests with water! One of the species is invasive to the United States and originally comes from a region of South America that floods frequently---it turns out that the ant species that is native to the flood region is able to relocate its nest much more efficiently than a closely-related ant species that is native to the United States where it doesn't flood very often. This is important because ant colonies are made up of thousands of individuals that have to make a decision together, and apparently having previous experience in that stressful situation helps a lot in making the right decision the next time it happens.

  
  
• Availability

  I am NOT available, please temporarily remove me from the available mentor list

  
  
• Videoconference Ability

  (not set)

  
  

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