A new approach to graduate professional development; lessons learned from a leadership retreat
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If you had 48 free hours, what are the odds you’d spend them at a leadership retreat? Prior to my own experience I would have said “not likely”. After all, I’m a second-year graduate student with coursework, experiments, and TA responsibilities clamoring for my time. I’m also a member of the…
Careers in Plant Synthetic Biology Part II: Computational Synthetic Biology
BlogIn part II of the series looking at careers in Plant Synthetic Biology I reached out to Valentin Zulkower who works as the Software Manager of the Edinburgh Genome Foundry (EGF), Scotland, UK, to find out about computational jobs.
In what ways can computational biologists contribute to synthetic…
Synthetic Biology: Improving Photosynthesis
BlogEvidence suggests that crop breeding programs have not optimized photosynthesis making it an attractive target for improvement. The last few years have been an exciting time for photosynthesis research with several groundbreaking studies that have afforded huge advances in both our understanding of…
Informational Interview with Dr. Chia Sin Liew, core facility bioinformatician, University of Nebraska
BlogInformational Interview by Yen Ning Chai, ASPB Conviron Scholar 2018
Dr. Chia Sin Liew is a bioinformatician working for the bioinformatics core facility at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Her jobs include maintaining the computing servers and providing bioinformatics services to the researchers…
Informational Interview with Dr. Amanda Waters, Crop Bioinformatician in the Agro-Discovery team of PepsiCo
BlogInformational Interview by Jaclyn Noshay, ASPB Conviron Scholar 2018
Dr. Amanda Waters is currently a Crop Bioinformatician in the Agro-Discovery team of PepsiCo. After beginning her undergraduate degree as a pre-med biology student, she began to do research in Dr. Nathan Springer’s maize genomics…
Alternate careers after PhD
BlogPart of the "Self Reflection" series by and for early-career researchers
These chapter of the “Self-reflection Series” was conceived to provide an insight for early-career scientist into options after defending their PhD dissertation, especially because many natural science degrees are (almost)…
Zombie Donkeys and the Modern Science Ph.D. Degree
BlogBy Andrew Hanson
In George Orwell’s masterpiece ‘Animal Farm’ Benjamin the donkey tells the other animals "Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey”. The point: history had hit him hard and often, so he could foresee outcomes.
As a non-dead (zombie) academic donkey…
Pathways not pipelines
BlogReflections on a Plant Science Research Network Workshop from an Early Career Scientist
by Nikki Forrester
It was a quiet morning in August. I sat in my apartment, sipping coffee and sifting through emails. “We are seeking early career scientists . . . who are eager to participate in…
Informational Interview with Jason Cavatorta, owner, Earthworks Seeds
Blog, Profiles of Plant ScientistsBy Mishi Vachev, Conviron Scholar
Jason Cavatorta is the owner of his own plant breeding and seed distribution company, Earthworks Seeds, in Orlando, FL. His seed is mainly marketed to home-growers and is often heirloom varieties of tomatoes, peppers, melons, and many more crops. He started his own…