Plantae Presents – Citizen Science in Plant Biology: Engaging Communities in Research
Plantae Presents – Citizen Science in Plant Biology: Engaging Communities in Research
Featuring Nick Blumenthal, David Hoey, and Heather Killen
When: Wednesday, January 28, 2026, at
5:00 AM PST | 8:00 AM EST | 1:00 PM GMT | 9:00 PM Beijing
About this Webinar
Citizen science can be an effective tool in plant biology and applied in different fields, from study of climate change, monitoring invasive species to agricultural improvement.
These practices benefit not only scientific research but also institutions and citizens themselves. Involving the public in research highlights academic efforts and promotes transparency and trust in science, while engaging the citizens in the public effort and connecting them into a community.
This webinar gathers plant scientists from various fields to share their involvement in citizen science and discuss how to actively engage your local communities through collaboration and effective science communication.
Hosted by the 2026 Plantae Fellows.
SPEAKERS
Nick Blumenthal
Nick Blumenthal is an international agricultural finance and economic development specialist, aspiring to leverage investment into science and technology as a means to combat global food insecurity and malnutrition. He has previously been invited to address the United Nations Committee on World Food Security and the White House as the youngest delegate invited to the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. Blumenthal serves as an appointed agricultural advisor to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and applies his extensive experience working across 30+ countries as an expert consultant to governments, multinational corporations, and NGOs, advising multi-million-dollar agricultural development projects across Africa, Europe, North America, and Asia. He has presented his research on agricultural development economics and molecular nutrition implicated in diet-related diseases at conferences worldwide. Blumenthal represents North America on several of the foremost leading international youth agricultural advocacy campaigns, has been an invited speaker at numerous global multilateral forums, and represented the U.S. in international negotiations on social development at the G20’s youth constituency. He serves on numerous boards, including to the World Food Prize Foundation, the “Nobel Prize of Agriculture.” Internationally recognized as a Schwarzman and Fulbright Scholar, Blumenthal completed his B.S. in Nutritional Sciences & Artificial Intelligence at the University of Florida, M.S. in Global Affairs at Tsinghua University, and will complete his MBA at Stanford University.
David Hoey
David Hoey is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Edinburgh in the “Molecular Palaeobotany & Evolution Group”, led by Dr Sandy Hetherington. David’s research interests are in how plants acquired novel complex adaptations for terrestrial life. He has worked on the molecular evolution of reproductive strategies, plant-microbe interactions, and now plant vascular development. David completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Glasgow, before moving to the University of Cambridge for his PhD. His doctoral research was supervised by Prof Sebastian Schornack, and was completed in 2023. During his doctoral research, he led a citizen science project called the Great British Liverwort Hunt, in which he co-ordinated members of the public to collect new accessions of the model liverwort Marchantia polymorpha to investigate intra-specific variation in liverworts.
Heather Killen
Heather Killen, currently at the Institute for Learning Sciences at the University at Buffalo, works to understand how information operates across systems, with a particular focus on community-based knowledge. She designs, facilitates, and evaluates collaborative spaces for creating, collecting, and sharing information within and across personal, geographic, academic, and institutional boundaries. Her work leverages both existing and custom-built technological tools, including apps, digital mapping software, and social media platforms, to address complex socio-scientific challenges like climate change.
MODERATORS
Katarina Kurtović
Katarina is a Postdoctoral fellow at Centre Algatech, Institute of Microbiology, Czech Republic. She studies High light inducible proteins (Hlips) in the cyanobacteria and explores the reprogramming of regulatory pathways of cyanobacteria to improve the photosynthesis efficiency. Outside of the lab she teaches yoga, enjoys hiking, and a good book with a cup of tea and her senior cat. X: @kat_kurtovic.
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. They thrive at the intersection of science, storytelling, and community building.
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.
