Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  University of Florida

  
  
• Employment Status

  University / College Graduate Student

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  My interest is in plant pathology; however, I have my undergraduate degree in plant science concentrating in plant breeding and genetics from Cornell University. Prior to graduate school, I worked as a lab technician in the Smart Lab at Cornell where I fostered my interest in plant pathology and gained experience working with different plants from tomatoes and peppers to hemp and willow. I was also able to work with a variety of plant pathogens including fungi, oomycetes, and bacteria. Currently, I am a first year PhD student at the University of Florida in the Jones and Vallad Labs working on plant pathogenic bacteria. The Vallad Lab specifically, contributes to the university’s extension and outreach program. My work focuses on the epidemiology of Xanthomonas euvesicatoria pv. perforans. The pathogen X. euvesicatoria pv. perforans is one of three species of Xanthomonas that cause bacterial spot on tomato and pepper and can result in reduced and unmarketable yield. During my PhD, I hope to continue gaining knowledge in plant pathology as well as become proficient in population genetics and epidemiology. Finally, I hope to improve my communication skills to better share findings and improve to scientific community’s relation with the public.

  
  
• 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):

  Despite always loving science, my road to plant pathology has been full of twists and turns. I loved plants from a young age when I started to help my dad in our garden (looking back I was probably more of a nuisance than help). As I got older, my interest in plants and biology evolved to be more about plant breeding and improving the nutritional quality of the food we produce. Despite this interest in plant breeding, one summer I found myself working in a plant pathology lab with plant pathogenic bacteria. Despite the terrible smell from rotting potatoes, I really enjoyed the work and ended up presenting on the experience during my last semester as an undergraduate. After undergrad, I worked as a lab technician in another plant pathology lab as I wasn’t certain if I wanted plant pathology to be my career. My work after undergrad confirmed my love of plant pathology and pushed me to apply to graduate school for working with plant pathogenic bacteria.
  I think the reasons for my interest in pursuing a career in plant pathology were three fold. First, science (for me) not only promotes curiosity, but it embodies it. There is such a feeling of joy and accomplishment when figuring out how a system functions. Second, although experiments are often by necessity repetitive, we are always expanding our knowledge in plant pathology and so the work is always evolving and shifting, this means that over time the work does not get old or boring. Finally, I think that working in plant pathology is important. Working with plant diseases can help improve our understanding of the diseases and help provide strategies to manage disease outbreaks. This is vital for ensuring the livelihood of growers as well as enabling affordable healthy food!

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is tough about being a scientist?

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

  As with many other things, I think the hardest part about being a scientist is starting. When you start on a new project or in a new lab, there will be so much that you don’t know! It’s up to you to put in the time to “catch-up” and become knowledgeable on the topic. While this can be difficult it is also feels really good once the information starts to make sense. The other challenging aspect of plant pathology is communicating the results of experiments. While working in science is quite rewarding, it can be as equally challenging. As scientists, we try to be very precise with our language. This means that we try to not over-interpret our findings and make incorrect generalizations. One difficulty that comes with this, I feel, is communicating the exact nature of a finding with people who may not have a background in the sciences.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  Do you have advice for students about preparing for a science career?

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

  I think the best advice I can give students preparing for a career in science would be to get involved early and often. Labs are often looking for students to help with basic lab maintenance, and while they may not the most glamorous jobs at first, with time and questions you will get a better understanding of the material. Being exposed to different protocols and systems will help get you acquainted with what science in that field looks like. My next piece of advice could be contentious, and I think that it depends on the person, but I would recommend trying to get exposure to different labs early on. While some people may find a lab and recognize that they want to continue this work throughout their undergraduate career, if you don’t find yourself enamored with the topic, there is no harm in exploring other labs in the same field to see if another lab would be a better fit.

  
  
• Help represent the outreach efforts of your societies. Please click all those organizations you are a member of:

  American Phytopathological Society

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

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

kevin Garrett Giles Nov 16, 2023

Hi all,

It sounds like you are doing some really cool experiments! Plant physiology and photosynthesis can be super interesting! What kind of light are you guys giving the plants (sunlight vs from lightbulbs?) Do you think that matters? And I am…

more

Hi all,

It sounds like you are doing some really cool experiments! Plant physiology and photosynthesis can be super interesting! What kind of light are you guys giving the plants (sunlight vs from lightbulbs?) Do you think that matters? And I am a 3rd year plant pathology grad student at the University of Florida. I am studying a bacteria that infects tomatoes. One aspect of my research has been on tomato stomata. Have you guys learned about them and their role in photosynthesis? Good luck with your work and I will be happy to provide any feedback on your experiments or questions. 

Chicken nugz Garrett Giles Nov 3, 2022

It seems like you guys have a very well designed and thought out experiment! It's a bummer that some of your plants didn't germinate though! These setbacks happen all the time in science and its nothing to worry about! Do you have any…

more

It seems like you guys have a very well designed and thought out experiment! It's a bummer that some of your plants didn't germinate though! These setbacks happen all the time in science and its nothing to worry about! Do you have any ideas on how to avoid this in the future? It looks like the 50% and 25 are the ones that didn't germinate? You guys should also start to think about how you want to measure the outcomes of your experiment. Are you only going to collect qualitative observations or will you measure plant height? You could also think about weighing the plants at the end out your study to get a bit more of an in-depth perspective. Some scientists when they are doing something similar to your experiment will even look at the "above-ground biomass" which is everything above the soil and the "below-ground  biomass" which is just the roots to see if the effects are only happening in one part of the plant!

Chicken nugz Garrett Giles Oct 19, 2022

Hi all, 

I'm Garrett and I am a PhD student at the University of Florida. I am studying plant pathology (I work with plants and the organisms that make them sick). It's cool to hear that you all are learning about the nutrients that…

more

Hi all, 

I'm Garrett and I am a PhD student at the University of Florida. I am studying plant pathology (I work with plants and the organisms that make them sick). It's cool to hear that you all are learning about the nutrients that plants need in order to grow! If you have time and are interested in this try to think about questions you have about these nutrients. For example, "What happens when the plants receive too much of a nutrient?" or "How do plants respond if they do not receive enough of a nutrient?" could be good places to start! Feel free to post your questions, and we can try (or at least think about how we could) address them!