Presenter: Rachel Meyer, Associate Adjunct Professor, CALeDNA Director, UC Santa Cruz, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and CSO of eDNA Explorer

Bio: Rachel's research background is all-around botany, which includes genomics, phytochemistry, and ethnobotany. She has done botanical research in many parts of Asia and West Africa. Before this, she obtained a PhD in 2012 from CUNY and The New York Botanical Garden (advisor: Dr. Amy Litt) and then did a three-year NSF Plant Genome postdoctoral fellowship at NYU’s Center for Genomics and Systems Biology (advisor: Dr. Michael Purugganan). During these years, Rachel was also one of three scientists running really fun plant science education business focused on cocktail bitters. She became more broadly interested in biodiversity, public outreach, interdisciplinary research, and science policy, which led her to Washington DC to serve the National Science Foundation’s Division of Environmental Biology as a AAAS Science Policy Fellow. Now back in her home state of California, she can work across disciplines and connect with the many stakeholders and interest groups focused on understanding and monitoring the state’s tremendous biodiversity resources.

Hosted by: Professor Angela Brooks, BME Department