WATCH (STLMade) Seeding Solutions

As part of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, plant biologist Katie Murphy addresses global challenges through the meticulous study of plants and shares her life and work as a scientist via social media, teaching, and mentorship.

Katie Murphy was an undergraduate research assistant at Stanford University when she discovered her passion for corn. Every morning, she and her colleagues would weed and tend to a cornfield while cultivating their ability to ask meaningful and measurable scientific questions. As a first-year chemistry major seeking any available paid research opportunity, she had serendipitously landed a spot in the lab of one of the world’s premier corn experts, Virginia Walbot.

“I fell in love with corn,” Murphy says. “I realized that plants are way better at chemistry than I ever could be — they’re doing chemistry all the time.”  As she progressed in her career, her students dubbed her “the corn queen.” The name stuck. It followed her to the University of California, Davis, where she earned a doctorate in plant biology and became a pioneering plant scientist in her own right.

Learn more about Katie in this video from Greater St. Louis Inc.