Dr Lovely Mae Lawas

Lovely Mae Lawas is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Crop Science Centre as part of the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge.

Biography

I study plant responses to abiotic stresses using molecular, biochemical, and physiological approaches. My interest in research started when I conducted undergraduate thesis for my bachelor’s degree in Biology at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). Afterwards, I worked as a Researcher at the International Rice Research Institute while pursuing a master’s degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from UPLB. I then moved to Germany and obtained my doctoral degree from the University of Potsdam and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, where I studied the effects of combined drought and heat stress on rice. I then did postdoctoral research on plant natural products and elevated temperature impacts in blueberry at Auburn University in the US. In Natasha Yelina’s lab, I will be investigating reproductive heat tolerance with a focus on meiosis in cowpea and Arabidopsis.