Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  University of Florida

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I investigate how certain species of plants have evolved using DNA. Some questions I'm answering with my research: how different plants related to each other? How have plants migrated across large distances over time? How do plants of the same species living in different places interact with each other? I often use computers and programming to help me answer these questions, since I work with really large amounts of data.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  My favorite plants are moth orchids! They're beautiful flowers with really interesting ways of reproducing and I love to use them as drawing subjects. I also grew up in a family of orchid fans, so growing them reminds me of my dad, aunts, and grandparents.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  Do you have advice for students about preparing for a science career?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  You may feel at some point that you don't deserve to have gotten where you are, or that all your peers are more competent than you and will someday realize that your success was a fluke. This seems to be very common among younger scientists, and it's normal that you feel that way! Keep in mind that you've worked hard to achieve your goals and that there are many others who feel exactly the same as you do.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is the coolest thing you have discovered or learned about plants?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  One of the coolest things I've learned about plants is all of the ways they've evolved to trick animals. From pitcher plants to rafflesia flowers to bee orchids, plants have developed all kinds of clever ways to make animals do their dirty work. Pitcher plants produce a liquid in their modified leaves which trap insects. When these insects drown, the pitcher plant releases digestive juices to digest and eat the bugs! Rafflesia flowers also attract bugs, but not to kill them. They produce the scent of a rotting carcass to attract pollinator flies. Bee orchids are also out to trick pollinators. Their flowers have evolved to look similar to female bees and are even fuzzy, so male bees may mistakenly pick up their pollen when futilely trying to mate with these flowers!

  
  
• Availability

  I am NOT available, please temporarily remove me from the available mentor list

  
  
• Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

Skj Kasey Khanh Pham Nov 22, 2020

Hi Y'luna, that's understandable! It's quite common to run into unforeseen circumstances or complications with an experiment. When these things happen, we either make do with the data we have, or change the experimental setup to fix the…

more

Hi Y'luna, that's understandable! It's quite common to run into unforeseen circumstances or complications with an experiment. When these things happen, we either make do with the data we have, or change the experimental setup to fix the issue, knowing that it'll limit what can be concluded from the experiment. Whatever you decide to do, good luck!

ghshendersonwosfall2020 project 8 Kasey Khanh Pham Nov 17, 2020

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry to hear about the seeds on your heating pad burning! It's still a result, though -- you can think of those seeds as maybe being in a similar environment to seeds on a rocky cliffside in the direct sun or laying…

more

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry to hear about the seeds on your heating pad burning! It's still a result, though -- you can think of those seeds as maybe being in a similar environment to seeds on a rocky cliffside in the direct sun or laying on asphalt in the middle of summer. Can you think of a type of plant whose seeds might be able to withstand that kind of heat? I've enjoyed working with all of you on the project, good luck with stage 2! :)

ghshendersonwosfall2020 project 8 Kasey Khanh Pham Nov 10, 2020

Hi Shameka, sure! I'm just curious whether the plants on the heating pad have continued to grow slower as more germinate and get bigger, or whether the pattern has flipped now.