Fascinated by the way plant stem cells are organized to produce the wide variety of plant forms we see in nature. I use maize as a model system to see how changing stem cell architecture through CRISPR results in changes in maize ear architecture. I also study maize natural variation to understand how plant stem cells have evolved in different varieties of maize to produce a dazzling diversity of maize ear sizes and shapes. I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

I obtained my PhD in Plant Biology at Cornell University, where I studied the molecular dialogue established between plant roots and arbuscular mycorrhical fungi to enable arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis.

In addition to my academic research, I am part of the Open Plant group at Genspace, a community lab space in Brooklyn, NY. Here, people with wide-ranging backgrounds work together with the goal of producing insulin in Marchantia, a small plant that is easy to grow.

When not in the lab, I love experimenting with sound, creating subversive pop music and making mixes.