Ying Sun

Ying grew up in Las Vegas and discovered her love for plants when she moved from the desert to California. She earned her Ph.D. at Stanford, studying the genomics and physiology of salt and heavy metal tolerant extremophytes. As a postdoc at the Salk Institute, she identified genes related to altering root morphology to engineer bigger, deeper roots that capture carbon for the Harnessing Plants Initiative. She has traveled all around the world observing how plants adapt to extreme environments, and loves weird and wacky plants! Ying is passionate about harnessing the power of Rare Flora to pave the way for a climate-resilient future, where plants, people, and our planet thrive together. Phytomining, an eco-friendly approach, has tremendous potential to revolutionize our impact on the environment.