Entries by Plantae Community

How Researchers Handle Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance, especially for careers in science, is more challenging than it sounds. Maintaining a balance between work and life represents a culmination of patience, self-discipline, and boundary-setting. It is common for researchers to suffer from mental health issues due to working significantly longer-than-normal working hours without making satisfactory progress. A 2022 Nature survey found that […]

The Plant Cell’s Cover Image Continues Global Conversation Over AI-Generated Art

The January 2023 Focus Issue of The Plant Cell, one of ASPB’s high-impact journals, spotlights research focusing on the biology of plant response to abiotic stresses and explores the effects of climate change such as increased drought conditions and extreme heat.  It also features an innovative AI-generated cover image created by Nan Eckardt, Senior Features […]

Parenting as an Academic in COVID-19 Pandemic Era

Today’s academics are confronted with new ways of life in the classroom and at home. Specifically, the pandemic affected academic parents’ work-life balance as it created novel challenges and unique opportunities, like working from home and hybrid teaching. Academics who were also parents may have needed to stay home or provide childcare, both pre- and […]

Taproot S6E5: Transforming Plants and the Culture of Publishing

In this episode, we speak with Yunde Zhao, a Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California San Diego. Yunde earned his Bachelors in Biochemistry from East China University of Science and Technology, received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Michigan, and did his postdoctoral training in plant genetics at […]

Navigating a Scientific Paper

Many in the scientific community attended the webinar this week with speakers Mary Williams and Michelle Facette, moderated by ASPB Plantae Fellow Xiaohui Li, but for those who didn’t or who want a resource to keep on-hand to help navigate a scientific paper, ASPB Plantae Fellows Rose McNelly and Shiqi Zhang created an infographic to guide […]

Taproot S6E4: Can We Force Academic Structures to be Inclusive?

In this episode, we speak with Jason Williams, Assistant Director of Inclusion and Research Readiness at the DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Jason is also lead for CyVerse Education, Outreach, and Training – the U.S. National Cyberinfrastructure for Life Science. Jason received his B.S. in Biology from SUNY Stonybrook in 2004, then […]

Taproot S6E3: Classroom Cosplay: Applying Creative and Scientific Approaches to Teaching

In this episode, we speak with Jennifer Robison, an Assistant Professor of Biology at Manchester University in Indiana. Jennifer received her Bachelor’s degree from Dickinson College, her Master’s degree from the University of Delaware and her PhD from Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. For her thesis, she studied how thermal stress impact gene expression and […]