Sarah Gray spent her summer thinking about sun protection — but not in the way you might expect. Her focus? Soybean crops.
“Heavy ultraviolet rays from the sun can lead to cellular death in plants,” explains Gray, who transferred to Southern from Connecticut State Community College. Now a junior majoring in biotechnology, she spent nine weeks researching sustainable ways to shield plants from harmful UV damage.
The opportunity came through the Plant Health Fellows program, a summer internship co-hosted by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) and Southern. The selective program — supported by the United States Department of Agriculture — provides students with mentored lab experience, a $5,000 stipend, on-campus housing, and career development opportunities.
Since Southern launched its program in 2017, 80 students from 43 colleges in 21 states have been named Plant Fellows. Impressively, 19 student researchers have hailed from Southern.
“Our alumni have gone on to careers at biotech startups, government agencies, universities, and more,” notes Elizabeth Roberts, associate dean of STEM at Southern. She leads the project alongside Lindsay Triplett, vice director and chief scientist for the Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology at the CAES.
Based at CAES’s New Haven office, the fellows dive into a variety of mentored scientific projects with topics ranging from plant pathology to forest health. Gray was one of two Southern students in the summer 2025 cohort, alongside biology major Erik Galvin. No prior research experience is needed, but applicants should have completed at least two STEM courses.
Summer of Research
Gray worked in the lab of CAES associate scientist Washington da Silva, a virologist who specializes in diagnosing plant diseases, bioinformatics, nanotechnology, and molecular biology. Under his guidance, Gray took on an innovative project: exploring lignin-derived carbon dots — nanoparticles made from leaf waste — and their potential as eco-friendly UV protectants for plants.
Put simply: Gray studied tiny carbon particles created from leaf waste (lignin is a natural support material in plants). These nanoparticles, known as carbon dots, could help protect crops from harmful solar radiation without harming the environment.
As their name suggests, carbon dots are carbon-based nanoparticles, typically smaller than 10 nanometers. (For comparison, a human hair is 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers thick.) Carbon dots have unique properties: they absorb UV light and then re-emit it at a different wavelength. (They glow!)
Southern’s State-of-the-Art Technology
Gray accelerated her research at the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Center for Nanotechnology, which is housed at Southern.
“We used Southern’s fluorescence spectrophotometer to measure the fluorescence emitted by carbon dots when exposed to UV light, which helped immensely in the research process,” she says. The tech was a game-changer, she notes, demonstrating how partnerships between academia and industry advance science.
Gray describes the fellowship as “rewarding and impactful,” an opportunity to put classroom theory into real-world practice. She gained hands-on experience in data collection, analysis, field work, public speaking, lab work, and scientific writing.
“I was able to visualize what a career in biotech may look like and the potential avenues I could take to achieve my goals in this industry,” she says.
Indeed, the program has a unique focus on career readiness. Students receive professional guidance during orientation. Roberts also notes that the fellowship introduces students to careers many are not familiar with.
“For example, while they may take courses in biochemistry, they don’t always know that they could use that knowledge for a career in forestry,” she says. “We host multiple career panels with plant biologists, entomologists, chemists, and the like to introduce our fellows to different career opportunities and ways to get jobs in those fields.”
