Byron Rusnak: The Plant Cell First Author

Byron Rusnak, co-first author of “Enhancer activation via TCP and HD-ZIP and repression by Dof transcription factors mediate giant cell-specific expression”

Current Position: PhD Candidate

Education: BS Plant Science from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities

Currently in the Plant Biology department at Cornell University

Non-scientific Interests: When I’m not in the lab, I’m often out walking around town or hiking one of the many forests in the area. I also enjoy cooking and baking, gardening, watching TV shows, and drawing.

Brief bio: Living organisms have the incredible ability to make structures of a precise size and shape over and over again. My goal is to understand how living things coordinate cellular growth and gene expression during development to make complex and robust structures such as an Arabidopsis flower. Understanding this coordination and robustness can help scientists understand and breed crops more resilient to changing environmental conditions. I also hope to adapt and develop new imaging and mechanical probing techniques to expand the ways in which plant scientists can study plants.