Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  South Carolina Governor's School of Science and Mathematics

  
  
• Employment Status

  K-12 (Pre-College) Faculty or Staff

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I am a plant pathologist, a plant doctor :). This career/job allowed me to interact with two of my favorite organisms: plants and fungi. The passion discovered in plants and fungi influenced my research interests and projects. With the help of many of my undergraduate students I had the chance to develop two lines of research:
  1) Biodiversity and ecological role of oomycetes (fungal-like organisms) associated with diseases of ornamental aquatic plants- water lilies and,
  2) The antimicrobial and antifungal activity of Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel). This part of my research is dedicated to explore plant extracts and their use as potential natural antimicrobial and antifungal agents. For that, I work side by side with a chemistry professor (Dr. H) who helps me out with the identification of the chemical structures of active plants extracts. Team work!

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

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

  So hard to pick one! I've been in love of plants since early in my career so I bet I can tell you an amazing story about almost any plant you could pick :). I have worked with soybeans, cotton, water lilies, mountain laurel (Kalmia), pansies and the list goes on. But I guess that if I had to choose one it would be the Venus fly trap, a plant that can actually count! A wonderful adaptation that allow them to sense the presence of the insect visitor by sensing the tapping of their tiny legs. Oh! and ghost pipes (Monotropa uniflora) and actual plant without chlorophyll- how crazy is that? :)

  
  
• Profile Question 2

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

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

  Well, my last high school year, my Biology Professor planted that seed in my head. Later on, knowing I was going to be a biologist, there were two -OMG- classes in College that led my path into becoming a plant pathologist: Introduction to Botany and Plant Pathology. Funny story: When I got into College I thought I was going to be a virologist and plants were not even in my list!
  Science is a world of wonder, so many amazing areas to pick from. Take the chance and explore them!

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  Can you share a funny/interesting lab or field story?

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

  So many! One of the memorable field stories happened in Stuttgart, Arkansas while we were counting soybean plants. Beautiful day, a lot of work to do and we suddenly saw the people at the field running like crazy and shouting at us something that was unintelligible...Guess what? There was a wild hog totally mad running toward us in the field!!! Fortunately, nothing happened. The workers hunted him down and nowadays the hog is a trophy at the experimental. station :/ . It was just like the movies!

  
  
• How did you hear about PlantingScience?

  Facebook

  
  
• Availability

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

  
  
• Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?

  1

  
  

Recent Posts

mhsmirandafall2022 project 1 Maria Valeria Avanzato Nov 30, 2022

Hello everyone!

Like Dr. Vanderklein mentioned it's a big part of science to get "not predicted" results. We are so used to read and learn the 'perfect' processes that we are surprised when nature decided to do…

more

Hello everyone!

Like Dr. Vanderklein mentioned it's a big part of science to get "not predicted" results. We are so used to read and learn the 'perfect' processes that we are surprised when nature decided to do something different :).  And that is a big part of biology, right? We work with living entities that not always respond as we predict. That for me, it's what makes biology such as fascinating science :)

It would be important to analyze your data and think about what would be your potential explanation on that. Was it an experimental condition? Was the hot temperature treatment, really hot enough to disrupt seed germination? Was it a new seed reaction to temperature? Thousands of possibilities! 

And those possibilities lead to many more experiments until we are able to answer every question. Pretty cool!

It was great to be able to work with you all this semester!

Good job approaching possible problems (plant yellowing) and reach out for help and seek for potential answers to what was going on.  You also did good taking pictures to record the progress of your experiment. 

You mentioned in your final thoughts, "our prediction was wrong". There is no right or wrong in science :). Your prediction was not accepted  based on your individual experiment. This is just the beginning of many experiments to come! :)

Have a great end of the semester!

Dr. Avanzato

 

mhsmirandafall2022 project 1 Maria Valeria Avanzato Oct 24, 2022

Hi Celeste!

By the way, your group's plants are the prettiest plants I've seen in a while :).

You All did a great job recording the steps of your experiment with pictures. Collecting data, along with pictures is a great practice for…

more

Hi Celeste!

By the way, your group's plants are the prettiest plants I've seen in a while :).

You All did a great job recording the steps of your experiment with pictures. Collecting data, along with pictures is a great practice for any scientist to be. 

About your yellowing seedlings...I checked the pictures.  Almost all the plants seem to start yellowing which makes me think that they are not receiving enough nutrients.

This is very common when we plant seeds. After the seedlings are up, it's usually recommended to transplant those to a bigger pot or directly to the soil. Think about this, most of the energy and 'food' sources that the seed needs to germinate it is locked in the seed. Once those resources are done, the seedling is able to phostosynthesize and that is how they get their nutrition, right? If you leave plants in smaller containers for a long period of time, eventually they will show symptoms of nutrient deficiency, and, no matter how much you water them, they will die.

May be it's a good time to wrap up the experiment and collect your data before plants die. You can discuss that with your teacher. 

Let me know if you All have any other questions, 

Keep up the good work!

Dr. A

 

mhsmirandafall2022 project 1 Maria Valeria Avanzato Oct 11, 2022

Hello everyone!

I was carefully reading your experiment and I noticed that as part of your treatments you will be using different water temperatures to estimate plant growth under those conditions.

Here are a couple of questions for…

more

Hello everyone!

I was carefully reading your experiment and I noticed that as part of your treatments you will be using different water temperatures to estimate plant growth under those conditions.

Here are a couple of questions for you:

Are you planning to use hot water to begin with or your planning to water plants and then keep the plants on a hot plate? 

A few things to consider:

1) Wouldn't the hot plate accelerate evaporation? If so, the water regimen should be paid close attention to. What kind of pot are you planning to use to avoid heat damage? 

2)  Once the water (warm-hot) -I assume- don't you think that the hot plate would only keep soil temperature instead of water temperature? Or, are watering with warm water every time? 

3) How is the hot water linked to a real situation at field conditions? It's always very important that our research questions are based on situations that farmers and growers are interested in and help with the overall well-being of a fruitful harvest. 

 

Hope this thoughts help you out!

Valeria (Dr. A)