Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  Michigan State University

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I am interested in understanding how plants respond to stress through changes in the regulation of their genes.

  
  
• 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):

  Growing up I was always very interested in science; out of all the subjects, it really stimulated my curiosity and I loved how many questions remained in the realm of biology specifically. It was amazing to me how we still barely understand the living things that inhabit the Earth and the processes that drive them. As a result, I ended up doing research in a lab on a green alga during my undergraduate career. I fell in love with the process of research and experimentation, because it satisfied my curiosity. However, it was not until a travel seminar to Costa Rica where I was able to see the diversity of tropical plants that I gained an enormous respect for the ability of plants to respond to their environment. This experience truly fueled my passion to pursue a career as a plant biologist.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is best about being a scientist?

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

  The best thing about being a scientist is being able to work towards answering exciting questions! Every day is a new day full of new questions and opportunities. An important added bonus is being able to potentially help the world with the work I do.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

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

  My favorite plant is the mimosa plant (Mimosa pudica)! Mimosa plants are somewhat smaller plants with pretty flowers. They are very cool, because their leaves fold inward when touched! For that reason, they are also nicknamed “the shy plant” and “the sensitive plant”.

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

  1

  
  

Recent Posts

Plantatoullie Eleanore Ritter Mar 24, 2022

Hi team,

I love seeing all the photos of your experiment! Based on what Morgan said, it seems like the seeds under white light are doing better than red or blue, like you predicted.

One question I had: do you notice anything…

more

Hi team,

I love seeing all the photos of your experiment! Based on what Morgan said, it seems like the seeds under white light are doing better than red or blue, like you predicted.

One question I had: do you notice anything different about any of the other traits (other than the length of the stem) between the different lighting conditions? For example, do any of them seem to have bigger leaves, shorter roots, etc.? It looks like from the pictures that there might be some differences aside from just stem length, which would be really neat!

As always, let me know if you have any questions for me! :)

Plantatoullie Eleanore Ritter Mar 23, 2022

A quick question for you all - how are you measuring plant growth? Are you all measuring the length of the plant that emerges from the seed?

Plantatoullie Eleanore Ritter Mar 23, 2022

Woah, that is a really cool set up! Which light seems to have the highest germination percentage so far?