“If you could fix one problem in the world, what would you fix?”
I looked out over twenty inquisitive second graders. One boy pondered for a moment and then announced. “I’d fix world hunger, because whenever I go to lunch and there’s only four chicken nuggets instead of five, I get sad and feel bad for people who have no chicken nuggets.”
As I considered his response I realized how much I could learn from everyone – even second graders. The following summer, I looked into a small subsection of world hunger: wheat destruction. Hessian flies, a major midwestern agricultural pest, damage large quantities of wheat and barley yearly. I began pursuing research that would help the world understand what genetic factors influence Hessian fly virulence.
I looked out over twenty inquisitive second graders. One boy pondered for a moment and then announced. “I’d fix world hunger, because whenever I go to lunch and there’s only four chicken nuggets instead of five, I get sad and feel bad for people who have no chicken nuggets.”
As I considered his response I realized how much I could learn from everyone – even second graders. The following summer, I looked into a small subsection of world hunger: wheat destruction. Hessian flies, a major midwestern agricultural pest, damage large quantities of wheat and barley yearly. I began pursuing research that would help the world understand what genetic factors influence Hessian fly virulence.