Rebecca Slattery was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois. Her research involved improving the efficiency of photosynthesis within crop canopies for enhanced crop production. For the RIPE project, she analyzed changes in global cropland use and how that may influence future regional crop production needs. Rebecca earned her bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and went on to earn her doctorate in plant biology from Illinois. Her work has been published in many peer-reviewed journals, including Plant Physiology and Journal of Experimental Botany.