Avani Reddy

High School Apprentice, Plant Disease Team

This summer, Avani Reddy was eager to join Team Plant Disease to expand her understanding of urbanization patterns in St. Louis through a scientific lens.

“I really liked SIFT [the introductory high school field training program], but I wanted to experience a more formal lab. I chose Plant Disease because I was fascinated by the urbanization gradient and how we collect data from rural, suburban, and urban parks to explore those differences and quantify the ecological context. It is becoming increasingly important with more cities becoming urbanized and as we see more of a separation between those suburban counties and urban locations. 

My first semester of junior year, I got the opportunity to take the St. Louis History class at my school. It was fascinating. It opened my eyes to so many cool things about St. Louis, but also a lot of stark divides and issues that St. Louis has that are unique from other cities. The urbanization project connects the bridge between environmental science and the stark divide that we have in St. Louis, and I wanted to hone in on that.”

She is interested in the interplay of natural processes, like the plant-pathogen interactions Team Plant Disease studies, and she enjoys learning from her enthusiastic mentors.

“It is cool exploring how everything is interconnected and how mechanisms directly play into each other and come together to form the natural world that we have and get to enjoy.

For example, seeing the certain plant defenses that Plantago has or how the mildew combats these defenses and makes its way into the host. We have a lot of super knowledgeable people in the lab that are all so passionate about what they do. Everyone has their own niche. It is inspiring to see how passionate these people are.”