Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Viktoriya Coneva

Viktoriya Coneva, co-first author of Sterile spikelets contribute to yield in sorghum and related grasses

Current Position: Molecular Biology Scientist at CTC Genomics, St. Louis

Education: PhD University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

Non-scientific Interests: day hikes, photography, puns

Brief bio: I have always felt drawn to observing the natural world and to attempting to capture these observations. During my PhD and several postdocs I explored diverse questions in plant biology, including the genetic and physiological bases of flowering time in maize, the genetic mechanisms of leaf thickness patterning in a wild desert tomato, the physiological function of the sterile spikelet in Andropogoneae grasses, and the evolutionary conservation of seasonally cued reproductive development in the moss Physcomitrella patens. I appreciated working with colleagues across disciplines and learning and applying diverse techniques to answer these questions: from planning and phenotyping an experimental tomato field to carrying out electron microscopy experiments.

Currently, I am enjoying the challenge of working at CTC Genomics in St. Louis to help improve biotechnology enabling tools for sugarcane, a high and variable ploidy tropical grass with few available genomics resources.