Sienna Ogawa - Graduate Ag Research Spotlight
Aspiring to become a marine biologist wasn’t all that unusual among her peers in Honolulu, says Sienna Ogawa, an Oahu native whose interest in sea creatures led her to study biology and biochemistry at the University of Nevada, Reno. “In Hawaii, there’s not a lot of basic plant research, so I always associated plant sciences with farming or soil science — more applied, which is not necessarily where my interests were,” she says. Like Purdue, the biochemistry department at University of Nevada, Reno is housed in agriculture. In her junior year, Ogawa was introduced to plant sciences through undergraduate research in a plant molecular biology lab, and her interest moved from the sea onto land. She applied to plant biology PhD programs across the country but specifically wanted one that would allow her to rotate through multiple plant biology labs before choosing the right fit. In fall 2019, she entered Purdue’s PULSe program and began the rotations that led her to join the lab of Sharon Kessler, associate professor of botany and plant pathology.