Noel Piatek was graduate student in the lab of Steve Long at the University of Illinois. For the RIPE project, she explored how variation in chloroplast number, size, and distribution can alter carbon dioxide diffusion and light interception, which each have strong implications for photosynthetic efficiency, and ultimately, yield. She worked on designing many constructs using Golden Gate cloning technology for transformation into tobacco and eventually soybean. She earned her bachelor's degree in integrative biology and later earned her master's degree in botany and plant biology from Illinois. She has since gone on to become a data intelligence specialist at Indigo, a data company.