Mae Mercado

Featured on February 21, 2021

This week, we’re joined by Mae Mercado who is currently undertaking her PhD in Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

Mae graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture, major in Agronomy (Plant Breeding) from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. She then took up a Master’s in Agronomy (Crop Physiology) from the same university.

For three years, Mae worked as a researcher and assistant scientist at the International Rice Research Institute. There, she undertook projects relating to the molecular, physiological and biochemical screening of transgenic rice lines as well as rice blast disease resistance screening, among many other things.

You may also know Mae as one of the co-founders of the Twitter account ScienceChatPH, which regularly organizes STEM-related online conferences and provides support to Filipino scientists.

Outside of work, Mae loves doing brush pen calligraphy. She is also a certified plantita who likes to collect house plants.

Let’s all welcome Mae to the Pinoy Scientists community!