Valentine’s Day often conjures images of chocolates and romance. But the crop behind this indulgence faces an existential threat.

“Curiosity is the foundation for every scientist’s motivation to understand complex problems,” said Chandler Woo, a senior chemistry major at Mississippi State. “Exploring the uncharted and finding answers to a problem that has not been successfully solved is what excites me about research in general.”

Mississippi State University’s Lourdes Cardozo-Gaibisso is a selection for one of only five 2024 Early-Career Research Fellows in Education Research by the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. This prestigious fellowship highlights a select few researchers in the nation for their innovative contributions to STEM and environmental education in the Gulf of Mexico region or Alaska.