Recognizing Plant Physiology authors: Robyn Roberts

Robyn Roberts, first author of Molecular characterization of differences between the tomato immune receptors Flagellin sensing 3 and Flagellin sensing 2

Current Position: Postdoctoral Scientist at the Boyce Thompson Institute. Starting in August 2020 I will be an Assistant Professor at Colorado State University.

Education: Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; B.S. in Biology from Indiana University

Non-scientific Interests: hiking, camping, playing saxophone, and crocheting

Brief bio: My undergraduate research experience studying the Arabidopsis-powdery mildew system in Roger Innes’ lab sparked my interest in the field of plant-microbe interactions. After earning my undergraduate degree in 2011, I attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison to earn a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology, where my research focused on the molecular interactions between wheat translation proteins and the viral pathogen Triticum mosaic virus. After finishing my Ph.D. in 2016, I wanted to learn a new pathosystem to broaden my expertise and focus on discovering and characterizing new genes that could have a direct, transferable impact on controlling diseases in plants. This led me to my postdoctoral work at the Boyce Thompson Institute where I study plant immunity in tomato with Greg Martin.  I am excited to start my new lab at Colorado State University in August 2020 in the Agricultural Biology department where my lab will focus on plant-microbe interactions in wheat and tomato.