Anna-Lisa Paul
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Carthage will host researcher Anna-Lisa Paul, who will share new insights into plants’ ability to grow in space at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 26, in the Campbell Student Union auditorium.

Paul will discuss her team’s experiments on the International Space Station. She is a research professor in horticultural science at the University of Florida and president-elect of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research.

She will explain how plants can grow and thrive in an environment completely outside their evolutionary experience. Paul’s team has begun to gain insight that will guide the role of plants in human exploration of space.

Gravity is one of the fundamental forces that impact plant growth and development, and the study of gravity-related signaling has been a rich source of insights into the metabolic paths plants take as they respond to changes in their environment. It was not until the access to space in the mid 1960s that it was possible to actually take gravity out of the equation. The insights that experiments conducted in orbital vehicles, like the Space Shuttle and the ISS, have contributed to our understanding of fundamental plant processes that extend far beyond simple gravitropism. 

As part of its ongoing colloquium series, the college’s Division of Natural and Social Sciences is co-sponsoring the event with the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium. Carthage has served as the lead institution for the WSGC since 2014. The event is free and open to the public, and no advance registration is needed.