Miranda is a 4th year PhD Candidate studying plant ecophysiology in the Medeiros Lab at Holden Arboretum. She graduated with a BS in Biology from John Carroll University in 2022 where her undergraduate work focused on cyanobacteria taxonomy. After completing a summer internship at Holden Arboretum in 2021, Miranda was confident in her decision to attend graduate school to study abiotic stress in the context of climate change. Post-graduation, Miranda hopes to land an industry career in agriculture or biostatistics.

Miranda’s dissertation research focuses on understanding stress tolerance in Rhododendron minus, an evergreen shrub native to the southeast US that is commonly planted in gardens. Through greenhouse experiments and modeling approaches, Miranda aims to understand how the environment influences trait differences among plants originating from Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia.

Her first manuscript, titled “Rhododendron minus seedlings achieve similar performance across light environments with anthocyanin accumulation and architectural adjustments under light stress” was recently accepted at AoB PLANTS.

You can read more about her work here: https://doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plag008