Profile

• Time Zone

  Pacific

  
  
• Organization

  Bayer Crop Science

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  My personal research interests revolve around plant disease resistance. Currently I am working on a project to identify a novel virus resistance gene in tomato and I hope to work on other similar projects in the future. My other current projects involve implementing new technologies for molecular diagnosis of plant diseases. This involves high-throughput genetic sequencing and bioinformatics. I like spending time in the lab and consider myself both a virologist and a molecular biologist. I hope to continue working on plant disease research throughout my career.

  
  
• 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 decided I wanted to be a scientist during high school. I had amazing Biology, Chemistry, and Genetics teachers that sparked my interest in scientific careers. I liked the logical process by which you investigate scientific questions and I liked that even the smallest achievement yielded valuable knowledge. The field of science is constantly changing as people learn and publish new things about our world, so I knew that being a scientist would never be boring. I originally majored in Chemistry in college but when I had trouble with the significant math involved I decided to try plant science instead. Essentially by happy accident I fell in love with the field of Plant Pathology and my summer internship before my junior year of undergrad cemented my feeling that this is what I was meant to do. I then went on to get my master’s degree and now work as a Plant Pathologist for a large agricultural company. I had several mentors along the way who helped steer me and my scientific passions and that is why I want to mentor and inspire other young future scientists.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is best about being a scientist?

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

  There are numerous great things about being a scientist. First of all, you are constantly working on cutting-edge research and learning brand new things never before known to man. Sometimes, you are the first person in the entire world to know something important about a research question – there are not many professions you can say that about. There are plentiful opportunities to work with other incredibly intelligent scientists to solve real-life problems that have the potential to make large impacts on the world. The solution to world hunger, the cure for cancer, or a new energy source are all within your reach with scientific research. Our research projects are constantly evolving as we solve pieces of the puzzle and as more questions arise so a scientist’s day-to-day activities are never stagnant. As a scientist you also get opportunities to collaborate with people from all around the world to solve the problems facing us. All of these aspects make being a scientist awesome.

  
  
• 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):

  The most interesting things I have learned about plants are related to plant breeding. If you look up photos of what the wild ancestors of corn or wheat or tomatoes look like you will be absolutely amazed that we have bred them into the plants we know and love eating today. Plant breeding started out as just picking the best and biggest plants to plants seeds of the next year but in modern times it is now truly an art form. We have used mutagenesis to induce random mutations and look for beneficial new traits. We have used forced genome doubling to create triploid offspring, like with seedless watermelon or bananas. We have figured out how to graft trees onto better-performing rootstocks, such as for almond or walnuts. Now we are emerging into the age of targeted genetic editing which has the potential to solve many disease resistance issues in important crops such as tomato. Seeing the many processes by which plants are bred and cultivated has impressed me and left me speechless on many occasions. As a consumer you do not often have the chance to see how your food is produced or what it looks like in the field but I highly recommend doing just that. You will gain a greater appreciation for nature itself and for the hard work that goes into agriculture.

  
  
• 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?

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

ahslauerafwspring2018 project 13 Abbie Stack Mar 27, 2018

Hi Anna, Maddie, Sela, and Emma! I'm your science mentor Abbie. I work at a vegetable seed company in Woodland, California as a plant pathologist. I'm basically a plant doctor - I study plant diseases and work on preventing them.

Sounds…

more

Hi Anna, Maddie, Sela, and Emma! I'm your science mentor Abbie. I work at a vegetable seed company in Woodland, California as a plant pathologist. I'm basically a plant doctor - I study plant diseases and work on preventing them.

Sounds like a neat experiment! Good job trying to control as many variables as possible by giving them the same amount of light and water. Those little hairs on a plant stem are called trichomes.

Let's Take a Cell-fie Abbie Stack Dec 13, 2017

The graph you made of your data by hand is excellent quality! I think another important conclusion here is that photosynthesis is the same in hot water regardless of CO2 addition whereas in room temperature water, the addition of CO2 is critical for…

more

The graph you made of your data by hand is excellent quality! I think another important conclusion here is that photosynthesis is the same in hot water regardless of CO2 addition whereas in room temperature water, the addition of CO2 is critical for photosynthesis to occur within the time period allowed.

Let's Take a Cell-fie Abbie Stack Dec 13, 2017

Interesting conclusion! I think it makes sense that the cold water would slow down photosynthesis. We use refrigeration to slow down other processes like food growing mold.