Biography

Environmental stresses aggravated by the climate change, food scarcity worsen by the increasing population, modern lifestyle with more dependence on non-plant-based food and medicinal resources, and consumerism culture that encourages the more the better, are major threads to our wellbeing and food security. Sustainable agriculture is one of the crucial parts of the solution for this problem. As a plant breeder, my goal is to help moving toward a more sustainable crop production system by identifying phytochemicals involved in defense against environmental stresses, understanding biosynthesis pathway of these phytochemicals, developing resilient crops by introducing or/and manipulating these phytochemicals production, and also adding more diversity to list of crops grown for food and medicinal purposes by identifying orphan crops that have potential of becoming a new source of important phytochemicals that have not gone through severe bottleneck yet. My first experience toward my career goal was on fennel which is used in food, beverage, cosmetic, and medicinal industries. I studied phytochemical and morphological diversity in 50 fennel landraces and developed five synthetic cultivars with higher yield and more drought tolerance. My second experience was on stevia which is the main source of extraction of steviol glycosides (zero glycemic sugar substitutes), and I located several QTLs and identified several candidate genes underlying steviol glycosides production. My third experience is currently on sunflowers in Dr. Chase Mason’s lab in UCF with the goal of identifying phytochemicals involved in resistance to biotic stresses and understanding genetic basis of these phytochemicals. With individual movements, as small as reading a book about ecology, everybody can participate in making Earth a safer place.