First Elected Group of Early Career Scholars

NAASC welcomes the first elected group of early career scholars! Arif Ashraf (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Luis deLuna (UC Riverside), and Margo Smit (Stanford University) are postdoctoral scholars that will serve for 1 year on the NAASC Early Career Scholars Subcommittee (ECSS)

Their candidate statements:

1. Arif Ashraf, Postdoc, University of Massachusetts Amherst
   I am working as a postdoctoral research associate with Michelle Facette at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and co-founder of Plant Postdocs. My research is focused on cell polarity, nuclear movement, and asymmetric cell division. I started my scientific career as a graduate student working with polarized proteins [PIN-FORMED (PINs) and ABCGs] in Arabidopsis thaliana. I discovered the function of polarized proteins as low temperature response regulators, arsenite and cesium transporters in Arabidopsis. I continued working on cell polarity as a postdoc using both Arabidopsis thaliana and Zea mays. My scientific training and research have greatly benefitted from Arabidopsis thaliana. In my future lab, I am planning to use Arabidopsis thaliana for the basic discovery and implement the knowledge into the crop plant Zea mays. My love and passion for Arabidopsis even reflect in my plant science blog and twitter handle (@aribidopsis).

   
   Apart from my research work in the lab, I actively participate in science communication and leadership roles for the community. For science communication, I served as an ASPB ambassador (2015-2021) and Plantae fellow (2019) and created my own plant science blog and podcast (No Time To Read). Additionally, I co-founded Plant Postdocs with a vision for creating career development opportunities for early career researchers (ECRs). Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to serve and contribute for the organism specific community such as Arabidopsis and maize. As a result, the nomination for the NAASC ECSS ballot is exciting for me.
   
   As a part of the NAASC ECSS member, I want to bring my science communication and leadership skills learnt over the years. For this purpose, I am willing to actively participate in organizing webinars and workshops; and contribute during the ICAR 2024 as well. Under my leadership at Plant Postdocs, we have organized 8 career development webinars, where we focused on bringing under-representative minority groups (15/32) and women in STEM (16/32) as panelists. As a member of NAASC ECSS, firstly, I will use my webinar organizing skill sets to design workshop and webinars beneficial for ECRs. Secondly, I will continue increasing the representation of historically ignored and minority groups. In this context, my past accomplishment and future commitments are deeply rooted with my own life experience and scientific journey; I grew up in a middle class, Muslim family from a small country in Southeast Asia, Bangladesh. During my 8 year scientific career, I have worked in 4 countries and 10 labs across universities/institutes, where I personally worked with more than 50 researchers from different races, religions, and languages. It helped me to build a strong network with a diverse community and learn to value the experience of the scientists from various walks of life. I am interested to bring my expertise and community network for the NAASC ECSS.

2. Luis deLuna, Postdoc, UC Riverside
   I started working with Arabidopsis in my undergrad training at the Institute for Biotechnology-UNAM in Mexico. I explored the participation of three MAPKs in the response of A. thaliana to glucose and ABA using classic transcriptional analysis methods. For my master’s and doctoral research, I worked to elucidate the role of several chloroplastic proteins in chloroplast development and function using proteomic analysis, and a series of genetic, cellular, and biochemical approaches. For my postdoctoral training I still use Arabidopsis as a model to explore exciting novel signaling mechanisms between the chloroplasts and the nucleus.

   
   During my training I also worked as a content curator for AMAfeed.com, where I oversaw reviewing, editing and proofreading content on topics related to science. I also had a position at Pfizer, where I participated in the implementation and rollout of Pfizer’s iConnect, a tool used to spread knowledge of human conditions to boost participation in clinical trials.
   I see Diversity as the equivalent to gene variation in Molecular Evolution, it is the raw material upon which natural selection can work. Without diversity, communities will eventually grow rigid, weak, and brittle, unable to adapt to challenges. In a sense, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging is a way to describe the efforts to create spaces that are welcoming to everyone, regardless of perceived cultural, ethnical, sexual, neurological, religious, gender, or racial differences. To me, it doesn’t mean being “color-blind”, it’s not about erasing our differences, but rather to acknowledge and embrace those differences and use them to drive the evolution of strong communities with powerful individuals, where nobody is vulnerable, and everyone is treated equally and has the same opportunities to succeed. DEIB efforts are the best way we as scientists can prepare for the challenges we can’t predict.
   
   I am currently working as a postdoctoral scholar at UC Riverside, a minority-serving institution with over 30% international scholars. I am a board member of the UCR Postdoc Association, an organization that seeks to further the experience of postdocs, project scientists, and visiting scholars at UCR. Based on the needs of our very diverse community, we organize a series of career development events aiming to ameliorate the common disadvantages that international scholars have. We organize social and networking events, writing workshops, a cross-disciplinary annual symposium, and we’re working on launching a new grad student-postdoc mentoring program.
   
   Because of my background and my status as an immigrant POC (Person of Color) postdoc in the US, several of the ECSS priorities align with the challenges I’ve faced in my academic life. As a member of the ECSS, I will focus on working with the Inclusivity Scholars Program to push forward existing or develop new intersectional DEI activities that empower young scientists in North America through mentoring programs, career development events, workshops, etc. As a Mexican scientist, I am particularly interested in identifying the barriers faced by Mexican graduates to access the academic job market at different levels across the US and Canada, and a mentoring program aimed specifically to the professional development of Mexican graduates will be one of my aims as part of the ECSS.
   
   I believe that my mix of scientific training, science outreach, and personal experiences as an immigrant will make me a great addition to the ECSS team, as I will bring insight not only into what it is like to be a scientist in Mexico or the US, but both at the same time. I am convinced that joining the ECSS team will give me the opportunity to contribute to the improvement of the academic experiences of dozens of young scientists in North America, and I am thrilled to see how far we can go as a community.

3. Margot Smit, Postdoc, Stanford University
   
   I am a Postdoc researcher at Stanford University where I work on plant developmental biology questions using the embryo and stomatal lineage as models for research and art. Originally, I am from the Netherlands, and I have worked at Wageningen University (NL) and UC Davis (USA). I have enjoyed being part of the Arabidopsis research community and would love to contribute more by being part of the ECS Subcommittee. I would like to address the needs of Early Career Scientists and to make sure we serve the whole community. I have been part of institutes with both large and smaller plant research communities and appreciate the benefits and challenges of both. As an international postdoc I bring outside experiences and I want to help represent international researchers working in North America. With the ECSS I would push for broad support and training for Early Career Researchers to help them develop skills and form connections with fellow academics as well as with industry, so that all can grow in the direction they wish.
   
   In my scientific career so far, I have worked on projects focusing on vascular and stomatal development in the Arabidopsis root, stem, and embryo. During my MSc I looked at Gene Regulatory Networks controlling vascular proliferation in root and stem at Wageningen University and UC Davis. Continuing at Wageningen I searched for factors that control the initiation of vascular identity in the embryo, during this I returned to UC Davis for a collaboration. For my PhD I made the switch to studying stomatal development and leaves. I have looked at stomatal pre-patterning in the embryo and now look at the roles of stomatal transcription factors in maintaining cell identity. In the past years I’ve gotten more into art, printmaking to be specific, and I’ve enjoyed combining art with science and vice versa!
   
   I enjoy connecting with people and organizing activities that have an impact and I have done so in the past, mostly activities aimed at science communication. I am looking forward to channeling the needs of the community into activities and support that will benefit us all, such as organizing workshops aimed at ‘soft’ skills and career development, as well as setting up peer groups for those looking for support and mentorship, and whatever other needs we hear the Arabidopsis ECS community has! To make sure we create a better research community overall, we need to keep pushing for increased Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. I believe that all should feel welcome and included in science and I am aware that this is not yet the case. Global events should include and be accessible and welcoming regardless your background and identity, as well as representing the global research community. I have previously been part of DEIB initiatives at Stanford aimed at mentorship and science communication for ungraduated, graduate, and high school students (ADVANCE, BioBUDS, Pen Pals) and will bring these experiences to promote and improve DEIB initiatives at NAASC.
   
   The ECSS focus areas I am most looking forward to working on include

   1) Training/career development, 2) Surveying for ECS community priorities, 3) Communicating with ECS plant biologists, 4) Expanding and strengthening DEI activities, 5) Developing ECS-focused activities for ICAR 2024-San Diego.