From September 18-22, 2017, we introduce you to 5 postdocs at the JGI in honor of National Postdoc Appreciation Week, which recognizes the contributions of these early career researchers. Through a series of hard-hitting questions, we find out what drives each one.
Estelle Schaefer is a postdoc in John Vogel’s Plant Functional Genomics group
What do you work on? Plant and microbe interactions. I’m setting up an experiment to learn about the interactions between Brachypodium and bacterial communities. There are competitions inside the communities and I want to know how they access the roots, how do they interact with other. Previous studies focused on just one microbe interacting with the plant; now we’re using a community of 50 microbes.
When did you join JGI? May 2017
Where did you join us from? JBEI at LBNL
What drives your passion outside of JGI? traveling
What song do you have on constant repeat? “California Dreaming”
What’s your favorite dessert? walnut cake
What could the letters JGI stand for other than “Joint Genome Institute”? juicy and groovy investigations
What do you appreciate most about JGI? open (literally and figuratively)