Katarzyna (Kasia) Glowacka was a postdoctoral researcher for the RIPE project at the University of Illinois. She went on to be an assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Kasia is a molecular geneticist and plant physiologist. For the RIPE project, she characterized the biochemical, molecular, and physiological properties of improved crop plants. She earned her bachelor’s degree in experimental biology from Adam Mickiewicz University and her doctorate at the Institute of Plant Genetics, Polish Academy of Science, where she also worked as an assistant professor. Her work has been published in Science, Journal of Experimental Botany, Global Change Biology Bioenergy, and other publications.