主要研究 今天

I GREW UP ON A FARM that was in my family for six or seven generations. 我妈妈和我妹妹还在经营. Both my parents farmed; I’ve been exposed to plants and animals since I was tiny. 有几张我小时候抱妈妈的照片.

在高中的AP生物课上，我们必须选择一个项目. 我选择了植物遗传学. That’s how I discovered Darwin; Mendel.

Then when I went to college, to Dartmouth, and took physics, 我说, ‘Oh, this is what I want to do.这是我大二之前的专业. Then I took a molecular genetics course and wondered why I left biology.

所以，我把专业转到了生物学. I was working in a lab at the medical school and at my mother’s farm a couple of days a week. 大四那年，我决定找份工作. 我说, I want to combine plants and genetics and I’ve been reading plant catalogues since I was a kid, 所以我将成为一名植物育种者. 我知道我必须得拿到博士学位.D. 所以我说，好吧，我买一个.

I went to Cornell and worked on peppers, studying what made them resist plant diseases. 太神奇了. 我的第一份工作是在加州萨利纳斯的美国农业部. I learned about a very different kind of agriculture there; it made me really reflect on what I knew of agriculture, 以及新英格兰农业的独特之处.

当我想回东部的时候, I learned of the opening for my current job with 合作推广. 我觉得这很适合你. I could do practical work in the region that would be helpful and study interesting things while connecting with farmers. 说实话，我都不知道有这种工作存在. I didn’t have a lot of teaching experience but had done a lot of presenting to farmers and realized that was a kind of teaching, 所以我告诉自己, “你会没事的, 你应该这么做.’

It’s everything I love — researching practical solutions to help keep agriculture vibrant. Teaching gives me the ability to do something academically challenging and not be at the behest of the weather. 农业风险很大，压力也很大. 我的工作, 我有自由和奢侈去探索事情发生的原因, 然后利用这些信息帮助农民做出更好的决定.

我来自一个坚强的家族, 像我妈妈一样能干的商人, 但我觉得经营农场生意不适合我. Before I came to 主要研究, I turned down the exact job I’d dreamed of as kid, as a plant breeder. I think I can do more good for more people by doing the kind of applied research and direct work with farmers and students that I get to do in my current job. 我想我已经找到适合我的工作了.”