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Some philosophizing.
Teaching
Research
My Science Journey.
I received a BSc Honors in Plant Biology from the University of Guelph, Canada, in 2003; during my undergrad I was lucky enough to work with Annette Nassuth on cold-tolerance in grape and with Derek Bewley on seed germination mechanics in tomato. I then moved to UC Davis, with conditional acceptance, to work with John Harada on somatic embryo development. My plant mechanics work began during my NSF-funded postdoc in the lab of Cris Kuhlemeier (Bern, CH) where I collaborated with Alexis Peaucelle (INRA, France) to develop AFM-based methods measuring cell wall mechanics in apical meristems. In 2013, I started The Plant Mechanics Group at The Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge. In 2017 the lab moved to UCLA to the Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology.
My Roles at UCLA.
I am also a member of the California Nanosystems Institute, the Molecular Biology Institute, the Center for the Study of Women, and the DOE Institute of Genomics and Proteomics.
I currently teach LS 7A (Cell & Molecular Biology) and LS 101 (Understanding Scientific Literature & Context) in the Life Sciences Core.
I serve on the Life Sciences Diversity Advisory Committee and the MBI’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee. I am one of many contributors to Plantae’s Changing Climates & Cultures resource, you should check it out because it is awesome.