Kelsey Whiting

Like many plants, Kelsey Whiting*, Ph.D., is adapted to various climates. She currently lives in Minnesota but was born and raised in Texas. Kelsey received her undergraduate degree from Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas, where she emphasized ecology and prairie restoration research in her honors thesis. Kelsey began her Ph.D. with Dr. Yaniv Brandvain at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. There, she earned her doctorate in the Plant and Microbial Biology department. She completed a dissertation investigating useful traits for plant breeding, such as pest and pathogen tolerance, in wild populations of the perennial oilseed and forage crop silflower. Kelsey started her career at The Land Institute as a research intern. After her time as a summer intern, where she worked on all the perennial grains and oilseeds being developed at The Land Institute, she became a Research Technician with Dr. David Van Tassel, the Lead Scientist in the organization’s Perennial Oilseeds program. There, she learned skills in greenhouse management, research plot planting, weeding, maintenance, and data collection. She also learned how to keep seedlings alive during a Kansas drought and discovered the inner workings of a plant breeding program at a non-profit organization. This gave Kelsey a unique viewpoint of research during her years in graduate school, where she further developed her understanding of plant breeding, evolution, and ecology.

*Publishes as Kelsey Peterson