Recent Posts

Diverse plants, diversity in botany

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Guest post by Paul Sokoloff, Senior Research Assistant, Botany, Canadian Museum of Nature Astragalus, the milkvetch genus, is a massive group of plants in the pea family that has diversified into over 3000 species, which can be found in various habitats across the northern hemisphere.  Its also a…

Fantastic Collaborations and How to Find Them

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Guest post by George Kantor, Senior Systems Scientist, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University This much is a truism: a successful career in any interdisciplinary field requires collaboration with people from different disciplines. It is more difficult to define what skills are needed to be…

Careers in SynBio: Startup companies

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As part of our continuing series on future careers in plant science I spoke to Dr. Ran Chao, Co-founder of LifeFoundry, a startup company aiming to expedite research and reduce cost in synthetic biology, about making the transition from graduate research to entrepreneur and what he looks for in new…

Reflections on my move from academia to a startup

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Guest post by Christy Gault My interest in agricultural biotechnology began in an unlikely place. In an undergraduate Wetland Ecology course, we took a field trip to a small patch of wilderness in rural upstate New York. Canoeing past dense vegetation under a brilliant blue sky, I felt a sense of…

Know thyself: the guide to shaping your career trajectory

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How the power in knowing one's self can positively shape a happy and fruitful career-life trajectory Guest post by Emily Wrenbeck I was fortunate to have an excellent graduate school experience in the Chemical Engineering Department at Michigan State University. Under the mentorship of Tim Whitehead,…