Announcing the 2026 ASPB Plantae Fellows

The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) is please to announce the 2026 Plantae Fellows, an impressive group ready to bring their best to this resource for the global plant science community. Fellows are selected for their interest in and enthusiasm for growing the plant science community, as well as for their science communication skills, content curation skills, and ability to represent the perspectives of plant scientists in various fields.

About Plantae and the Plantae Fellows

ASPB’s Plantae is widely known as a resource-rich platform featuring various articles, tools, and perspectives for plant biologists from around the world and at all stages of their careers. This endeavor wouldn’t be possible without a cohort of motivated plant scientists who share their expertise and passion for plant science as Plantae Fellows.

The role of the Fellows is to help nurture and grow the Plantae community.  For example, Fellows contribute to the Plant Science Research Weekly series, coordinate and moderate the Plantae webinars, share ideas for resources that are relevant to early career plant scientists, create and grow networks and create topical content for the Plantae community. Plantae Fellows also receive an inside view of the technology roadmap for the Plantae platform and provide feedback and direction as needed.

Meet the 2026 ASPB Plantae Fellows

Gourav Arora

Gourav is a third year doctoral researcher in the Coupland department at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne. His work focuses on the regulation of flowering time in Arabidopsis, specifically through the FT-FD module. Originally from Haryana, Gourav completed his master’s degree at the University of Delhi, India. Passionate about science communication, Gourav enjoys sharing scientific concepts with the general public. In his free time, he loves capturing the beauty of nature through photography, particularly flowers and plants. He also enjoys watching anime, playing table tennis, and reading Hindi poetry. X: @gourav_arora_g

Jahed Ahmed

Jahed is a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Laboratory of Membrane Biogenesis, CNRS/University of Bordeaux. His research focuses on deciphering the roles of reactive oxygen species and calcium signaling in plant-virus interactions, exploring how pathogens hijack host membrane nanodomains to facilitate infection.

Fatai Ayomide Akande

Fatai is a research assistant at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Headquarters in Nigeria, specializing in advancing crop resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses through molecular breeding, genomics, and bioinformatics. His research focuses on understanding and improving Striga resistance and drought adaptation in maize using gene expression studies, marker discovery, and validation. Fatai is passionate about applying integrative approaches to sustainable crop improvement. X: @AkandeAyomide20

Krishna Chaitanya Alamuru

Krishna is a returning Plantae Fellow (2025–2026 cohort) and a PhD candidate at the Centre for Crop Health, University of Southern Queensland, Australia. His research focuses on plant pathology, genomics, and the genetic basis of disease resistance in mungbean. Krishna also serves as Secretary of the RAID Network (Researchers in Agriculture for International Development), a program supported by the Crawford Fund, where he contributes to strengthening international research collaborations and science communication initiatives. X @alamuru_krishna

Atharv Ambekar

Atharv is a second year PhD student at the Swammerdam Institute of Life Sciences (SILS) in University of Amsterdam (UvA). His current research focusses on the metabolic dialogue between plants and microorganisms in the rhizosphere, and its role in orchestration of biotic interactions in the rhizosphere. Owing to his prior research, he is also interested in Plant Pathogen interactions, effector biology, and evolutionary origins of pathogenicity. When not working, you’d find him reading non-fiction books, quizzing, or solving sudoku. X: @AtharvAmbekar2 | Bluesky: @atharvambekar2.bsky.social

Reed Arneson

Fengoula Avgeri

Fengoula is a recent PhD graduate in Plant Molecular Biology from the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. Her research expertise focuses on plant proteostasis and mitochondrial biology, while she sees science as an adventure without boundaries. Beyond her scientific pursuits, she enjoys the company of a good book, hiking in nature, and creating illustrations. Bluesky: @fengoulaavgeri.bsky.social | X: @AvgeriF

Priyanka Babuta

Priyanka is enthusiastic plant biologist, currently working as postdoctoral researcher at National Institute of plant Genome research, New Delhi, India. Her research resolves around free radical biology and nitric oxide signaling with the focus to decipher molecular insights into the S-nitrosylation and denitrosylation in plants. Beyond the lab research, she enjoys socializing with friends over coffee and traveling. X:

Sonia Balyan

Sonia is a Scientist at the Indian Biological Data Centre, Regional Centre for Biotechnology, where she leads the development of the Indian Crop Phenome Database (ICPD; https://ibdc.dbtindia.gov.in/icpd/) and other national-scale FAIR data resources. Her work spans biocuration, computational biology, and plant molecular biology, with contributions to understanding microRNA-mediated stress responses in crops. She is also the founder and host of the Beyond Shodh (www.youtube.com/@beyondshodh24) Podcast and serves on the Executive Committee of the International Society for Biocuration (ISB) and is also an active member of AgBiodata. Bluesky: @soniabalyan.bsky.social | X: @sonia_balyanBS

Cael Dant

Cael is finishing up an MS in plant biology and conservation at Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden. They love anything and everything to do with carnivorous plants, and their thesis research focuses on the ecology and physiology of the North American pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea. Before graduate school, Cael spent five years working in government and international relations in Japan and still works as a Japanese-English translator while remaining involved in public policy from the science side. In their spare time they enjoy hiking, drawing, making pottery, crocheting, and growing plants.

Flavia Soledad Darqui

Flavia is a biotechnology graduate with a PhD in Biological Sciences, currently working as an assistant researcher at IABIMO, INTA, Argentina. Her research focuses on transformation and CRISPR-based gene editing of lettuce as a crop model system. At present, she is studying lettuce genes involved in abiotic stress responses by generating knockouts using CRISPR/Cas9.

Sophie Zoe Farkas

Sophie is a final-year PhD student at the University of Freiburg. Her research focuses on root system architecture, specifically the regulation of lateral root angle by genetic factors and environmental stimuli. When she’s not in the lab, you can find her on the football field or playing tunes on her alto saxophone. Bluesky: @sophiezoe.bsky.social | X: @fsophiezoe

Adrián González Ortega-Villaizán

Adrián is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics (CBGP) in Madrid (Spain) and he will soon be joining the University of Nottingham (UK). He studies how root-associated microbes influence plant growth and help plants cope with abiotic stresses, focusing on endophytic fungi from extreme environments and their interactions with Arabidopsis thaliana and tomato. Outside the lab, he passionate about exploring nature and love cycling. X: @adrigov98 | Bluesky: @adrigov.bsky.social

Jordan Hester-Moore 

Jordan Hester-Moore is a returning student at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa pursuing a degree in plant biology and preparing to dive into ancient DNA research on Hawaiian Andisols, with the goal of illuminating past plant–soil interactions and supporting restoration of native ecosystems. She brings to the American Society of Plant Biologists Plantae Fellows cohort a dedication to sustainable landscape science, science communication, and growing inclusive networks for early-career plant scientists.

Deborah Ighalo  

Deborah is a Ph.D. student at East Tennessee State University, specializing in plant molecular biology and lipid metabolism. Her research focuses on the transcriptional regulation of oil biosynthesis in seed tissues using genes typically expressed in non-seed tissues, aiming to enhance the production of heart-healthy oils in plants. She is passionate about sustainable agriculture and actively supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2 (Zero Hunger), 4 (Quality Education), and 5 (Gender Equality). Outside of research, she enjoys music, reading, and writing.

Kavita Joshi

Kavita holds an MSc in Botany from Kumaon University, Nainital, India. Her research interests lie in ethnobotany and plant genomics, particularly in combining bioinformatics with experimental lab techniques to explore biosynthetic gene clusters and secondary metabolites with medicinal potential. On her free time, She like crafting, gardening, and be an eco-explorer.

Anastasia Kolesnikova

Anastasia is a final year PhD student working on understanding whether there are any genetic reasons why some wild plants can be domesticated and others cannot. Her research interests span bioinformatics, omics analyses, plant evolution and orphan crops. In her spare time, she’s a keen science communicator, tango dancer and enjoys looking after her allotment. X: @natplantsci

Alessandra Lombardi

Ale is a passionate plant scientist who likes to dive into the interplay between science, art, and communication. In their third year of their PhD in Uppsala, Sweden, they are studying evolutionary dynamics in plant speciation. Their research focuses on Capsella species as a model for the evolution of selfing.

Montserrat Lopez-Coria

Montserrat is a plant biology researcher with experience in industry and academia. She is passionate about science communication and education and is excited to contribute to the Plantae Fellows Program by creating accessible resources that connect diverse audiences with plant science.

Trevor Melusen

Trevor is currently a researcher at Plasmidsaurus, where he focuses on making Next-Generation Sequencing faster and more affordable for all researchers. He is eager to bring his experience in scaling cutting-edge sequencing tools to the plant science community, building on his previous research into plant-bacterial interactions in the rhizosphere. He believes community outreach is a necessity and is excited to connect with local communities to share knowledge. X: @trevor_melusen

Iris Mollhoff

Iris is a recent graduate of the Stanford Biology PhD program. She is an avid educator, gardener, and enjoys diving into new artistic hobbies. Iris is fascinated by plant secondary metabolites and is eager to learn more about how they function on a mechanistic level in plant growth and defense processes.

Shakunthala Natarajan

Ruth Nichols

Ruth is a first year Plant Biology graduate student at Cornell University. In the Julkowska Lab at the Boyce Thompson Institute, she is interested in studying the Pareto front optimality of root system architectures for water transport under abiotic stress, namely microgravity and outer space conditions. She enjoys reading sci-fi, watching scary movies, camping, drawing, and drinking too much coffee.

Emma Olmi

Emma is a PhD student at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa. Passionate about plant science and molecular biology, she investigates how plants recover from submergence and cope with a combination of biotic and abiotic stresses. Outside the lab, Emma enjoys hiking, knitting cozy sweaters and singing. Bluesky: @olmiemma.bsky.social

Sonal Sachdev

Sonal is a Postdoc at the Department of Biology, NYU. She completed her Ph.D. early this year and started her postdoc journey in the USA. During her Graduate research, she studied the fascinating mechanism underlying Pollen development and unveiled a crucial involvement of Chromatin remodelers in orchestrating plant hormone Jasmonic acid and its role in the development of the male gametophyte. Currently, she is exploring the fascinating world of DNA-Protein interactions governing the developmental and stress response pathways in Arabidopsis. She is also an ASPB ambassador, an SEB mentor, and a PlantPosdocs Leadership Team member. She is looking forward to working with the amazing Plantae Fellow cohort. She thoroughly enjoy reading fiction and gardening during her time away from the lab. X: @sci3ntyst | Bluesky: @sci3ntyst.bsky.social

Charlay Wood

Charlay is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, originally from the UK. Her research is a blend of plant biochemistry and synthetic biology, where she engineers crops to both capture more atmospheric carbon and transform it into high-value aromatic compounds. She’s also leading efforts to commercialise a red-pigmented soybean as a sustainable alternative to synthetic food dyes. Beyond the lab, she teaches Argentine Tango, is obsessed with learning new languages and insists football should never be called soccer! X: @Charlaywood