Profile

• Time Zone

  Central

  
  
• Organization

  University of Wisconsin - River Falls

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I study plant architecture and flowering genes to improve agronomic and ornamental traits. I work with the garden pea mostly but also with other legumes. I also study the role of plant hormones in plant growth and development, especially the gibberellins!

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

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

  My favorite plant is the garden pea because I study it in my research. I also love the sweet pea and other legumes--both agronomic and ornamental!

  
  
• 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):

  I have always been interested in plants. When looking at photographs taken while I was growing up, I am usually holding a plant! I started out in college as a chemistry major but then switched majors (and colleges!) to major in a plant science track for those interested in graduate school.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is the coolest thing you have discovered or learned about plants?

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

  While working with Dr. Susan Singer at Carleton College, we crossed different lines of pea to answer questions about the developmental genetics of flowering in pea. One of our crosses resulted in flowering of a genotype that was blocked in flowering!

  
  
• Availability

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

  
  
• In addition to English, I am comfortable communicating with students in the following languages:

  (not set)

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

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

The effect of type of water on number of leaves and average... Sonja Lee Maki Oct 12, 2021

Hi Everyone,

It's great to hear you are progressing on your project. I'm curious how your coriander seeds are doing? From your October 4th message it didn't sound like you had observed any seeds that had germinated. It has been a few…

more

Hi Everyone,

It's great to hear you are progressing on your project. I'm curious how your coriander seeds are doing? From your October 4th message it didn't sound like you had observed any seeds that had germinated. It has been a few days now, have some emerged? If so, have you had fun collecting your data? That is always a fun part of any experiment that I do. I love to organize the data and analyze it!

I tried to see if I could view your data, but I don't see where I can view it quite yet.

Have fun!

Sonja

The effect of type of water on number of leaves and average... Sonja Lee Maki Oct 1, 2021

Hi from Sonja!

Hi everyone--I'm one of your scientist mentors for your group. I thought I'd introduce myself here. I live in Wisconsin and teach at a local university. Some of the courses I teach are horticulture, floriculture,…

more

Hi from Sonja!

Hi everyone--I'm one of your scientist mentors for your group. I thought I'd introduce myself here. I live in Wisconsin and teach at a local university. Some of the courses I teach are horticulture, floriculture, greenhouse management and crop physiology! My crop physiology students are performing experiments this semester too. My research background is in plant hormones and flowering, mainly with peas. I'm really looking forward to working with you during this Planting Science session! 

Sonja

NFA Courtsunis Team 6 Sonja Lee Maki Nov 15, 2016

Hi Group!

Fantastic work on writing up your results! They were very thorough and easy to understand. Documenting your research with photos was also a good idea and helped me understand your experimental set up!

Nice work!

Sonja