Education

My research focuses on improving how plants react to changing water availability and light. Our lab uses CRISPR-Cas9 and golden gate cloning to create transgenic lines of soybean, tobacco and cowpea with changes in stomatal dynamic responses to boost photosynthesis and water-use efficiency.

I am doing the molecular screening and evaluation of transgenic and CRISPR-Cas9 lines for genes related to stomatal opening and closing in soybean, tobacco and cowpea.

Awards, Recognition, and Volunteer Work
Annual Review of Plant Biology

• Head of Science Communication, ASPB-Early Career Plant Scientists Section 
• 2025 Plantae Fellow – American Society of Plant Biologists
• Winner, Three Minute Thesis Competition, Plant Biology 2023, ASPB-ECPS

Mae is a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Dr. Tracy Lawson at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she is studying regulators of stomata for water-use
efficiency. She finished her PhD last August 2025, studying key factors in photosynthesis evolution in wild grasses and heat stress tolerance in maize. She is currently
the Head of Science Communication at the American Society of Plant Biologists-Early Career Plant Scientists (ASPB-ECPS) Section. Outside work, she likes to do brush pen calligraphy, baking, playing the ukulele, and singing.