Welcome! Let us know a little bit about you and your interest in plant sciences.

[Pankaj Kumar]

Hello/namstey everyone Pankaj here I am happy to introduce myself.

Currently, I am a Ph.D. student at the Polish Academy of Sciences Institute plant Genetics, Poznan, Poland, in the department of legume genetics, I was born in India, In a family of Indian farmers, finished my bachelor in biotechnology from magadh university India, and my master in plant biotechnology in Banaras Hindu University, India one of the large university in India. After that, I joined the national agri-food biotechnology institute as a project fellow, a team that first-ever worked with CRISPR cas implant in India, our research established that a genome-editing tool CRISPR case can play a lead role to improve vitamin A in Indian bananas, and using metabolic engineering in a plant using CRISPR cas can play a lead role to improve nutritional quality in food and complete demand of nutrition for human food and animal feed.

I currently investigate the role of WRKY, and another gene in response to pathogens that attacks pea. Including trying to decrease the antinutritional compound from food crops using CRISPR cas. Recently we got a bilateral research project called into-polish research grant, to investigate and explore this possibility. In legume crop.

Let’s look and share together and we can discuss on Twitter:- @pankajprabhu1

Here I always update with Ph.D. and Postdoc Positions worldwide in Plant biology. You can visit my profile.

[Rigel Salinas-Gamboa]

Hello everyone! My name is Rigel Salinas Gamboa. I´m originally from Mexico. I studied experimental biology in the Metropolitan University (UAM-I) where my research was focused on the integrity of membranes of the tomato fruit, together with the Institute of Agriculture in Argentina (INTA-Castelar). I came back to Mexico (CINVESTAV-Irapuato) to study the Master focused in Biotechnology, in the reproduction of the female gametophyte of a bean originally from Africa, known as cowpea. Then I worked for 4 years in the same lab (Apomixis lab), in the induction of synthetic apomixis in Arabidopsis and cowpea. Currently I´m studying the PhD since 2019 in Cologne, Germany (MPIPZ) to focus on the Mechanisms of Meiosis and Recombination in Arabidopsis. I am also very interested in all the topics related to outreach, science communication, education and psychology.

Cheers!

[CHANDAN GAUTAM]

Namaste plant lovers!

I am a fresh graduate. <font face=”inherit”>I earned my PhD degree last month. </font>Starting<font face=”inherit”> August 01, I am a postdoctoral fellow at Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. </font>

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<font face=”inherit”>I am curious about plant’s development and rhizopsheric events. My postdoctoral project is focused on understanding the role of iron deficiency signals and environmental pH in the regulation of coumarins pathway. I interested in communicating science to general public with little to know science education. I also work on promoting environment literacy through social media. </font>

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My life beyond lab is mostly around hiking, biking, cooking and gardening.

My recent publication includes discovering the role of a peptide coding gene, IRONMAN, in providing tolerance to alkalinity (DOI: 10.1093/plphys/kiab329).

You can connect with me on twitter https://twitter.com/chandan_gautam

<font face=”inherit”>Or, </font>ResearchGate<font face=”inherit”> </font>https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chandan-Gautam

Tweets by chandan_gautam

[Okon Unung]

My name is Okon Unung. I’m a Senior Scientific Officer at the National Biotechnology Development Agency, Nigeria. I hold a Master of Science degree with specialization in Plant Breeding and Biotechnology. My research interest is on deciphering plant pathogenesis and epigenetic dynamics in plant responses to viral infections as well as CRISPR/Cas9- mediated genetic engineering for disease resistance in plants. It is my pleasure to join the plantae community. I hope to network with eminent plant scientists, share ideas and learn about current trends and emerging tools and methodologies in plant science research. I can be reached on Twitter: @OUnung

[Eddy Mendoza Galindo]

¡Hola a todos!

My name is Eddy Jesús Mendoza Galindo, I’m a hyper enthusiastic and highly motivated undergrad student of Agrogenomic Sciences at UNAM (México). I am studying population genomics of Agave for my thesis dissertation (at LANGEBIO MX and Desert Botanical Garden PHX) and have experienced above 9 research internships where I fell in love with plant science.

Since 2016, I have been teaching plant physiology to Mexican high school students pursuing a medal at the National and International Biology Olympiad. There was when I received the “Phytoman” nickname, they said, there is not any other who loves plants as I do!
Eventually, the idea of Phytoman became a character: a superhero who knows everything about plant science and uses his knowledge to save our problems arising from our society.
I use my developing art, literature, and music abilities to create videos, comics, and songs to share plant science with kids, students, and more.
Since I have grown in a very small country town, I am proud to represent the people who truly cohabitate with plants and give back what they deserve since academia uses to forget them.

Being part of the foundation of a national network of students was always been my dream, now it is a huge project aiming to communicate science to my whole country (biologosdefrontera.com). This pandemic has taught us we have the responsibility to share our work, thereby, it became imperative to break barriers between science and society as soon as possible.

There is still a long way on my road as Plant Scientist and I believe Plantae, Fitoman, and us together can be real superheroes and start a change in our world.

[Jiawen Chen]

Hi! I’m Jiawen, a 3rd year PhD student at the John Innes Centre in the UK. I grew up in the Netherlands and did my undergraduate in Biochemistry at the University of Edinburgh. I work on the biochemical interactions involved in starch granule initiation in plastids, focussing on Arabidopsis and wheat. I would love to understand better how the size, shape and number of starch granules in chloroplasts and amyloplasts are regulated, and how this compares between different organs in one species as well as the same organs in different species. I love hearing about all kinds of exciting research in plant science and am excited to get more involved with the plant science community here!

[Yadukrishnan Premachandran]

Hi everyone! My name is Yadukrishnan Premachandran and I am a postdoctoral fellow at Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India.

I am interested in studying light responses in plants and the interaction of the light signaling pathway with various hormonal pathways during plant development. In my Ph.D at IISER Bhopal, I studied the influence of light on the ABA-mediated inhibition of early seedling development in Arabidopsis.

For me, Plantae has always been the most effective platform that brings together plant biologists across the globe.

Eagerly looking forward to being an active part of this community.

[Kristen Van Gelder]

Hello everyone! My name is Kristen Van Gelder, and I am a PostDoc at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. My research area is in synthetic biology with a focus on “plantizing” microbial enzymes through continuous directed evolution. I am currently working on evolving enzymes of thiamin biosynthesis. During my graduate studies at the University of Guelph, Canada, I studied plant specialized metabolism, with an emphasis on isoprenoid biosynthesis in tomato. I have also studied specialized metabolism in Cannabis sativa and Mitragyna speciosa.

I look forward to sharing and discussing plant science with everyone in the Plantae community!

[Lekshmy Sathee]

Hi everyone

This is Lekshmy Sathee, currently a Senior Scientist, Plant Physiology at ICAR- Indian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi, India.

Briefly, after completing Master’s and PhD from ICAR-IARI, I have embarked on an independent research career in 2009.

Current interests include Plant Nutrio-physiology, Nitrogen use efficiency of cereals, Elevated CO2* Nitrogen interaction and nitrate signaling.

Apart from the research I am passionate about teaching and guiding PG and PhD students which is a highly fulfilling component of my job profile. Currently guiding 6 PhD and 1 MsC students.

Besides my research, I love music and creative writing. Reach me at [email protected] and @lekshmysnair, for discussion on plant science and in particular plant nutrition!!!

[Alan Wanke]

Hi everybody! I am Alan and I am currently working as a research assistant at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Cambridge (UK).

While I was born in the western part of Poland, life brought me to Germany, where I have studied Biological Sciences at the University of Münster. During my studies, I developed a fascination for theoretical biology & plant biochemistry. I did my PhD thesis on innate sensing of fungal cell wall carbohydrates at the International Max Planck Research School (MPIPZ) in Cologne. At the moment, I am working on the establishment of plant-microbial interactions and the evolution of symbiotic interactions with filamentous microbes in the lab of Sebastian Schornack at the SLCU.

Having worked in different types of “organisations” over time, I have a personal interest in changing working culture and experimenting with working methods (e.g. agile approaches) in academic contexts.

Beside my life as a scientist, I enjoy cycling (the best way of traveling!), dancing Lindy Hop and Solo Jazz, having friends over for dinner and working as a volunteer for Viva con Agua, a german NGO raising awareness for global water, sanitation and hygiene deficits.

Feel free to reach out to me here or via Twitter (alan_wanke).

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by  Alan Wanke.

[Rory Burke]

Hello everyone! My name is Rory and I’m currently a PhD researcher at University College Dublin in Ireland. I carried out my undergraduate degree at Trinity College Dublin, where my thesis focused mammalian biochemistry and metabolism, but thankfully I had a change of heart and turned to the ‘green side’ to begin my career in plant science research!

My current doctoral work is on the regulation of programmed cell death (PCD) in plants, a genetically controlled process responsible for the elimination of damaged, infected or structurally redundant cells throughout the plants’ lifecycle. To do this I am utilizing an Arabidopsis cell culture system as well as Arabidopsis t-DNA insertion mutants, alongside RNA-seq and multiple phenotyping methods. I also have a particular interest in the roles of auxin signalling, chromatin accessibility and polyamines in both PCD and stress tolerance.

Outside of the lab I love to run, especially in the hills and mountains when possible, which gives me a good opportunity to brush up on my plant ID skills. I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone else here – please feel free to contact me on this profile or via twitter (https://twitter.com/rorby95) if there’s anything you’d like to discuss!

Tweets by rorby95

[Julia Baulies]

Hi! I’m Julia from Argentina. I have a degree in Biology (oriented to Botany) from the University of Buenos Aires, and am now close to getting my PhD from the National University of Rosario. I currently work in root regeneration, aiming to understand its genetic regulation, but I’m also interested in other areas such as plant diversity, anatomy and morphology.

[Orla Sherwood]

Hi there, my name is Orla Sherwood and I am doing a PhD in plant biology based in the School of Biology and Environmental Sciences in University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland. I completed my BSc in biochemistry and molecular biology in UCD in 2017 and went on to do an MSc in science communication in Dublin City University where I looked at the how communication responsibility is reflected in job descriptions of university scientists for my thesis.

My PhD is focused on the genetic regulation of waterlogging tolerance traits in barley, one species which is important for the Irish agricultural economy. I specifically look at roots and how aerenchyma forms under waterlogged conditions to enable plant survival. This is of particular interest in an Irish climate where occurrences of extreme precipitation events are predicted to be more frequent in future climate scenarios associated with climate change impacts.

Thanks for reading and I’m looking forward to connecting with more people here who love plants!

[Vandna Rai]

Hi, I am Vandna Rai, working as a Scientist at the Indian Council of Agriculture Research-National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi, India. I am interested in working on salt stress tolerance in rice and pigeonpea as well as waterlogging stress in rice and sesame. I am glad to join the Plantae community and am open to share and interact with like-minded people.

[FAISAL SAEED]

Hello Everyone. I hope you are all in good health. I am FAISAL SAEED and i am a doctorate student in the field of agricultural genetic engineering in Nigde Omer Halisdemir University, Turkey. I am in 3rd year of my doctorate and my research topic related to genome editing of tomato plants. In my post graduate studies i developed herbicide resistance sugarcane plants. I have worked with plants since my bachelors and you can say that plants are my best friend.

I hope here we will interact each other and will play beneficial role for the improvement of plant science. I am just a message away and can help you in every aspect related to plants genome editing, herbicide resistance plants, tissue culture of tomato and sugarcane.

Waiting for new friends.