Bethany Holland was a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of RIPE Director Stephen Long at the University of Illinois. She was interested in improving plant growth by mathematically modeling the allocation of carbon and nitrogen to sources and sinks. Her wider interest is in exploring biological concepts using mathematical techniques. For the RIPE project, Bethany worked to create a mechanistic model of nitrogen fixation to quantify the energetic requirements of processes in the roots. Her model will be combined with whole-plant models—including a mechanistic model of photosynthesis—to better understand the dynamics between carbon and nitrogen within the plant, determining when nitrogen fixation switches from a net gain for carbon fixation and overall plant growth to a net drain on fixed carbon.

Bethany earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Nottingham Trent University, a master's degree in industrial mathematical modeling from the Loughborough University, and a doctorate in plant sciences from the University of Sheffield. Her work is currently published in In Silico Plants with several other works in preparation.