Hello Illinois! Kathryn S.L.

Hello! I am a new PhD student in the Department of Plant Biology at UIUC, and a graduate of Hampshire College (in Amherst, MA). I am interested in evolutionary ecology, coevolution and plant microbe interactions. I am grateful to have the opportunity to learn more about this at UIUC, working in the Heath and Dalling Labs. In addition to this research, I am interested in science outreach and community engagement. As an SPI Summer Fellow, I will be working with Dr. Heath to prepare for a project examining the community assembly of aquatic fungi growing on wood along salinity gradients (specifically, tidal rivers). Who show shows up when, and why? This project, Funded by the NSF, will also include the Dalling lab.

For the SPI group project, I am working with Lakiah Clark, Jamie Thissen, and Vanessa Rivera to examine processes and structures of agroecological research. I plan to look at what happens when researchers include stakeholders in the designing of projects and experiments. I have long been curious about what determines the questions that are addressed within research communities, and how the inclusion of different communities or groups may change the structure or focus of a project. I am particularly curious as to how inclusion of local stakeholders at the earliest stages of a research project impacts the work that is ultimately done. Of course, this begs the question of who these stakeholders are, and it is one I look forward to exploring.