Alex is a 1st year Master’s student from Plant Biology, working with the Heath and Marshall-Colon labs. His research focuses on the evolution of partner quality variation in the legume-rhizobium mutualism. This type of mutualism can have variable effects on the host, ranging from highly beneficial to detrimental. Alex is using population genomics to parse out how that variation persists in natural systems.
What have you been working on this past week?
On Monday we harvested almost 700 plants from the Plant Biology greenhouse for a big partner quality variation experiment we’ve been running. I love my study system but one unfortunate thing about it is that for all of those plants we have to count every single nodule on their roots (I’ve had up to 250 this week on one of them!) so that’s been pretty all consuming this week. Luckily lots of people from both my labs have put in some major hours, so we should be done pretty soon!
How do you unwind after a long day of work?
I have a two-year-old daughter, so she keeps me busy most of the time, but any time I get the chance I love to go bouldering at Urbana Boulders, or really do anything active, especially stuff outdoors! After a long day in lab it’s great to go do something that gets the blood flowing and gives you some space from whatever you’re working on that week.
Where do you like to go to spend time outdoors?
My favorite place in the world is the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior, it’s a chain of 22 islands you can kayak out to and camp on and it’s absolutely awesome, but it’s also a 9-hour drive from Champaign. More locally, I’m a huge fan of Lake of the Woods and last year I went out to Kickapoo to try mountain biking for the first time which was a blast, I’m excited to do a lot more exploring this year!