Welcome to Plants People Science. This is a podcast of the American Society for Horticulture Science, where we like to talk about all things horticulture.
Sam HumphreyI'm Samson Humphrey. I'm a PhD student researcher at the University of Tennessee, and I'm one of your co-hosts.
Curt RomAnd I'm Curt Rom, University Professor of Horticulture at the University of Arkansas. We'd like to welcome our audience today. Thank you for taking the time to join us. So, Samson, how's the new year starting for you?
Sam HumphreyOh, it's been fantastic. Actually, today I was shocked to walk out my door. And here in Tennessee, it should be freezing right now, and it is very much not freezing. I don't think the temperature changed from inside of my home to outside of my home when I stepped out that door. It's pretty blind mind-blowing.
Curt RomYeah, I'm ready for spring. You know, the days are already longer, just by a few minutes. The sun angles changing just by a little bit. But uh I have spring garden fever. I'm ready to be outside when I don't have to do my teaching and my research. I'm ready to start gardening, which I think is actually great because we're going to kind of have a gardening episode today. Well, to some extent, going to talk about flowers.
Sam HumphreyAbsolutely. You got a lot of different things, Kurt. How early do you start with your gardening journey in the spring?
Curt RomWell, a couple weeks ago, uh, a local nursery knew I was looking for hydrangea, and our weather was mild enough, and they were trying to reduce their inventory. So part of my uh December-January transition was I planted uh 20 hydrangea in either five to eight gallon pots. I have uh I had 20 of them. I had four different uh species and about five varieties on there. So I've done that. Uh I have uh gotten my first load of uh compost that I put out in gardens. And this weekend I'll be starting to mulch my, I'll put out a trailer load of mulch. So I'm I'm ready for gardening. I want to if the weather's good and the sun's shining, it's time to be outside.
Sam HumphreyYou're right. But that is I'm I'm actually blown away by how much you've done because you have a high teaching workload as well. And so it's good to see that you're already jumping on top of things.
Curt RomWell, you know, that's what weekends have been made for, and uh the weather has been good on weekends, so I'm fortunate for that. And it maybe it's my uh nervous energy uh download. It's kind of the that physical activity that gardening keeps me in touch with what I'm hopefully teaching
and uh you know kind of informs some of that. Uh nothing informs better than blisters. Um and uh that then I can start the academic week with my teaching and my research uh with renewed vigor to be in the office.
Sam HumphreyThat's a great point. Um yeah, I'm excited for this weekend myself. I have my first blacksmithing class. And you may know this or you may not. The the first like exercises you often do in blacksmithing is making leaves out of metal. And so, Kurt, if you would like any metal leaves for any sort of purpose you could possibly imagine, let me know.
Curt RomWell, uh it's not related to the podcast, but in my background, I also took a blacksmithing class and at an interpretive uh camp in New Mexico, I actually taught blacksmithing for two summers. And so I have made those kind of things and hooks and hinges and nails and knives and a whole range of tools and implements. So good luck. Blacksmithing is really fun.
Sam HumphreyThank you. It's a big, exciting world out there. And yes, I do I do hope that it, like you said earlier, makes it easier when I go back, reinvigorates me to go teach plant physiology and do my other research.
Curt RomHammering hot red metal is a lot different than teaching plant physiology.
Sam HumphreyIn a good way, I hope. In a good way, fantastic. Well, you are about to grow your flowers. I'm about to hopefully make some flowers or something. And our guest today is related
to that. Our guest is Alison Carlson, the head of technical services and cut flower technical expert at Syngenta Flowers. She did her master's and PhD at North Carolina State University under Dr. John Dole, who we've talked to on this podcast before. And while she was there, she studied cut flower post-harvest quality and longevity. And then she jumped into an industry career. So today's episode will be about her shift from academia to industry and the advice she has to offer. We're excited because this will be a good resource for our student listeners who might be curious about industry careers. So if you're ready, Kurt, let's give this episode a listen.
Curt RomLet's get going. Let me add a quick footnote at this point. This podcast episode is recorded in winter, and we wanted our listeners to know that the California spring trials typically are held annually in late March or early April. This year they were held March 24th to the 27th, and they have shifted to a Tuesday through Friday format. Registration is required, and to register for future California spring trials so that you can visit and see what's happening on the horizon of floriculture, please go to the National Garden Bureau website.
But before we get into today's conversation and discussion, uh you and I have known each other a long time. We've worked together. But for our audience and for this conversation, do you prefer we call you Dr. Carlson or would you like to be called Allison?
Alicain CarlsonI am A-OK with Alicain, and my my name is spelt uniquely too. So I think it's good to help uh emphasize that it's Allison and not Allie Kane.
Curt RomIt is Alicain. And it's a it is a very interesting way to spell it. And but you know, maybe it matches the personality. So some sometimes those cue. Well, give us a little bit of background. Tell us who you are, what you do, and then you know, we're I want to kind of uh change into uh tell us how you became a horde of culturist. But start off, tell us what you're doing right now.
Alicain CarlsonYeah, cool. Yeah, so right now I am the head of marketing for the Americas region, so for North America, Central, and South America, for Syngenta Flowers, which is a global flower breeding company that produces seeds and cuttings of new flower genetics that that we breed in our organization. I have been a part of Syngenta Flowers for a little over 10 years now. I haven't always been in marketing. I started as a technical scientist based out at our Gilroy, California facility where our R&D breeding happens, where I did technical trialing that helped to basically scientific research trials that helped to create and validate our marketing messaging. Because we didn't want to just say, hey, we have a pretty new pink begonia. There's not a whole lot of substance behind that. We wanted to be able to say things like it had it has 20% larger flowers than the competition or maybe a previous variety that we had. It flowers two weeks faster, it needs 30% less plant growth regulators. So, you know, my my job was to help make real substantial marketing messaging to uh to promote our genetics and to help our grower customers. And now over the last 10 years, I have moved through the organization in various roles from a technical scientist doing the trials to the technical trial manager and technical manager, which is responsible for managing the teams that then do those trials and the teams that support our customers all across the country that go to visit them. Our tech leads were kind of like the extension agents of the industry where they go out and help our customers grow our genetics the best on everything from uh variety selection to what growth regulators to use and even how to, you know, adjusting temperatures, really anything. then kind of that background led me into an opportunity to become our head of marketing. which at first, I don't know, if anyone would have asked me like during grad school, if I thought, like, hey, Alcain, like, do you think you'd ever be the head of marketing for a flower breeding company? I'd be like, what are you crazy? Like, no. Um, but it's actually been uh a really great role for for me personally, and the experience that I had um within Syngenta leading up to it and and also aligns with what our our culture and um our customer support like within Syngenta Flowers is. You know, we really have a um a focus and um keen interest in making sure that you know our marketing isn't just fluff, that our products aren't just me too things that somebody else has, but that we are innovative and we are sharing the science of
of our industry. Because I mean horticulture is scientific. I mean, it's it's a science. That's why you know ASHS horticultural science, like that's the thing.
Curt RomThat's that's what we hope. Well, you know, here on our podcast, you know, we call it Plants, People, and Science. So uh the plant part, you know, is really exciting right now. We're moving towards spring and towards summer. We're getting close to the flower season. So, you know, your expertise on this and what's happening at Syngenta and giving us a big uh national and global perspective is really good. Uh, but we let's get before we get to the science, let's talk about the people. So tell us about Alicain. How did you become a horticulturist? What was your journey? How did how did you get from there to now you know we understand how you've kind of risen up inside of the organization and in marketing, but how did you get to that point?
Alicain CarlsonYeah, so before I um before I joined Syngenta, um, I guess I'll go chronologically, like back in time, I my the the doctor part of Dr. Carlson came from my time at uh North Carolina State University. Um I did uh a master's and a PhD at NC State um under Dr. John Dole, one of the premier horticulturists.
Curt RomGreat guy.
Alicain CarlsonYes, in in our world, really, uh, and studied cut flower production and post-harvest. So uh was really keen on you know learning the science behind production, like even did some work in new variety evaluation and kind of like figuring out all of the nitty-gritty details about um potential new cut flower introductions and like what growers would need to know. Um, that was more in my like master's, and then um my PhD focused on um more like molecular and um microbiology concepts around uh base life in cut flowers. So did some RNA sequencing, quickly realized that yes, that's very cool, but really not how I wanted to uh spend my life as a horticulturist. Um the microbiology part was was very interesting. Um, but um so that experience, I mean, led me to my my job at Syngenta. But um even before that, I mean, I didn't find horticulture until um until undergrad. I did my undergrad at Virginia Tech. Um I started as an undecided student because I I thought I wanted to be an architect because I loved like the art and the science behind like the mix of of that, that there's like an art to the design, but then like the science of it being like structurally feasible.
Curt RomYeah, science and visualization. I get that.
Alicain CarlsonYeah. So like I I loved that, but then like didn't get into architecture programs. So the universe had other plans uh for me. And my sophomore year of undergrad, I decided to take an indoor plants class. So I was like, oh, you know, this will be cool. I'll learn how to not kill my plants, you know, it'll be a fun thing to to do as I try to, you know, navigate my way through university. And um I remember like being in, maybe it was like, I don't know, even just like the third or fourth class, like learning about, okay, this plant needs this light, and this plant needs this to flower, and like this plant, like learning about all the unique things that like made that plant successful. I was like, oh, this is really cool. Like I like learning the the scientific names, and I was like, wow, I think I'm a plant nerd.
Curt RomIt is it is cool. We're all plant nerds here, it's a safe space.
Alicain CarlsonYes, yes. So I had found my people, and um, but I uh so I started exploring those options with like the great resources that were at Virginia Tech and um decided I declared a major in biological sciences, um, but then minored in horticulture. So I kind of like they didn't at that time when I was at tech, they didn't have like a plant science uh program. Um so I kind of made my own and uh and it was wonderful. So I TA'd for floral design, um, and I worked in an aquatic ecotoxicology lab. Um so I got like that art experience with the floral design, but then like super science-y stuff with that that toxicology lab. And um then that program helped me find my way to to NC State. So yeah, that's how I found out that I was a plant nerd.
Curt RomIt's great that you got to work with John Dole, actually. This time last year, we were introducing uh interviewing him for our podcast, our kind of spring flower podcast about especially uh cut flowers. So um so you got off to graduate school and became a graduate student.
Alicain CarlsonYep. Sort of and and went through those programs. And I mean, I I really had a a
focus on uh getting a faculty position. I mean, that was one of my main main drivers for pursuing a PhD. I mean, I I loved the science and the studying and like getting into the nitty-gritty, and I uh that's very much like part of my personality. Um, and I really loved teaching, um, still very much love teaching. I'm a a teacher at heart. Um, and so was focused on on uh looking for faculty positions and also I didn't really know what was out there in industry for someone like me or what that was like. Um uh didn't quite have a ton of exposure to that. Um but uh I don't know, through my my application processes for faculty positions, I had um someone at Syngenta Flowers reach out to me, like via the grapevine. So y'all, the the it's a small world in horticulture, like word gets around when people are like open to work and and things are working. So build your network, okay? Um, put yourself out there. One of the things that got me exposed to my future employer was presenting at ASHS conferences. So I know that can be like nerve-wracking to do those oral presentations and stuff and um to put yourself out there, but you never know what opportunity it's gonna open, open up for you. Um but kind of getting back to my journey, I was applying for faculty positions, but got an email from my future manager at Syngenta Flowers saying, Hey, um, we have this position open Syngenta Flowers. Um I've heard that you're looking for faculty positions, but would you consider, you know, consider this role at Syngenta? And I was like, okay. Um well yeah, like tell me more about it. And I don't know, kind of long story short, after an amazing interview, I decided, wow, this feels really good at Syngenta. And I'm gonna change, I'm gonna change my mind. I'm gonna change my direction. And I kind of like took took the leap into industry. Um, and it's been wonderful. So I uh yeah, glad I I didn't keep those blinders on and was open to to other opportunities.
Sam HumphreyThat is phenomenal. That story is so interesting too because I feel like the students I know are kind of all along they're kind of considering their options. They're always like, oh, what if I could do industry um but still often working toward academia? Um, you had many different experiences when you were in in undergrad and in graduate school. How did those experiences lead to lead to skill sets that are helping you now in your
not in academia in your Syngenta career?
Alicain CarlsonYeah, I as a grad student, I I liked to be involved in the other like student organizations. So like we had a really um active chapter of Pi Alpha Xi at NC State. And I I was an officer in there and helped to you know lead that in the activities there, which taught me a lot about leadership, you know, and leading people, also managing budgets. Um, I was also involved in our grad student association chapter, our HSGSA, um, and the president of that for several years and um things like that. I mean, I definitely learned a lot in the labs and in classes and like got that scientific process. But the the other activities I did taught me more about like working with people, managing money, um managing products, uh projects and um kind of those those other skill sets that ended up really translating into kind of a general like industry career. Um, you know, in Pi Alpha Xi , we set up the plant sale. Now I'm responsible for our event at CAST at California Spring Trials, which is like our biggest plant sale like of the year. So, you know, it's means smaller scale in grad school, but you just scale up the experience. Um and uh I know sometimes Dr. Dole would I'm sure he's probably gonna listen to this. I know he'd get a little bit frustrated with me that I was involved in all these other things too. He's like, Really you have time for this? And but it it it really helped me become a better leader and like people manager, and um, it also helped me have perspective for uh refocusing on other things that maybe when my RNA extraction wasn't happening very well for like the 50th time, like I had something else that I could like break my focus and like maintain my like mental health a little better too. Um, so it was a nice balance of of activities. Um yeah, that helped keep me as stable as a graduate student can. Um yeah.
Sam HumphreySo student organizations, getting involved also at the sort of decision making level of those student organizations. Does anything else come to mind?
Alicain CarlsonUm also teaching, like taking the opportunities to being for being a teaching assistant um was was great, you know, not only for if If you go into an academic career, but also I pull on those experiences now for how I communicate and explain things to growers in presentations, or how we build um the information that we write, you know, our internal reports. Um yeah, just how in general I operate in explaining things to the 15 people that I have now reporting to me. Like I'm a teacher every day. So like those those those concepts that you learn of what makes you a good teacher is really just what makes you a good communicator. And communication is so important regardless of of where your your career is. So yeah.
Curt RomWell, uh, you know, you've also been really involved in kind of sharing some of that advice with uh our uh younger members at ASHS at our career uh events, our career development events. Uh you seem, you know, even though you now you're working in the commercial industry, you still have a little bit of that passion for teaching and sharing with young people. Uh and I I think you're involved in American Hort and their scholars program. Uh what kind of things um, you know, really besides teaching and those uh how well let me get to it. What about networking? Coming to these meetings and the opportunity for networking, when I look at my
students, you know, they think networking means liking something on an app. Um can maybe maybe you've got a different viewpoint on that.
Alicain CarlsonYeah, I yes. Networking is is extremely important because I people are what help make connections to are what help make connections. So, you know, I feel like a lot of us maybe get into horticulture because it's like, oh, the plants don't talk back, you know, or you know, it's like something about the being antisocial kind of, but um, and being more like introverted, but but really there's you've you've got to connect to people because that's where your next like great opportunity is, or where your next great idea is, or you know, someone who shares your same, you know, nerdy tendency for something. Like we we need that people connection. So, I mean, for me, you know, as a grad student being involved in those organizations, um, you know, and even within the university, but also taking opportunities to connect with others outside of my university um by going to ASHS conferences or um going to industry events and just yeah, broadening your network to meet other people, like you get new ideas, new perspectives, um, and like different opportunities come your way. Um, and I keep that philosophy even now, like in my career in Syngenta, like I network within Syngenta. I mean, we're a big organization, so it's great to like, you know, meet a few new people every year, even within Syngenta and make sure that, you know, I know who's who in Syngenta, but um making sure I keep those connections outside of the organization too for uh extra leadership opportunities or learning opportunities. Um you just yeah, you just never know what you're gonna learn from from somebody else. So, like right now, I mean, Kurt, like you said, I am involved in ASHS as you know, teaching things in at like conferences and stuff whenever I can. I'm the industry division vice president right now. Um, but I'm also engaged in um the National Garden Bureau, uh, which is an organization that connects uh home gardeners with trusted gardening information and horticultural information. So it connects home gardeners with industry experts about our industry. Um, but then also organizations like the American Floral Endowment. I'm on their board, um, connected with the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. I don't know, that's just opportunities to learn and teach and influence and just be engaged with um more than just what's going on in our little bubble. You like you see more perspective and get broader learnings.
Curt RomYou know, and I think that's a really good point. I teach a career and professional development class this semester, every spring semester. And when we talk about looking for jobs, um the evidence is across disciplines, not just for horticulture, that the highest success rate and the highest uh uh achievement rate and the more likely to succeed and enjoy your job comes from a job where you were recommended by your peers and your network relative to finding an advertisement online or something. You know, so somebody's already kind of done some matching, they've thought about it. So who you know and and making those network connections really leads to uh higher job success and better job satisfaction.
Alicain CarlsonRight, because when someone can, when someone knows you and they hear about a job, they're like, oh, you know, so and so would be really good at that. Like, you know, it's it not only helps you get connected to a job where people see you have a strength in it or a passion in it, um, but also it helps the employer have a lot more confidence in saying, I'm gonna hire you, because hiring people is very risky for organizations. Like if you don't, if that person doesn't work out, so there's a lot of there's a lot of risk. So having um references, like trusted references, um, and multiples of them is a higher likelihood that you're actually gonna get that job because we're kind of getting extra confidence in, oh yeah, they're interested in it, they can do it. Oh, you've had good experience, you would recommend them. Great, you know, yes.
Curt RomWell, you know, I that's one of the things I I've said that at ASHS meetings and our professional development seminars, and it's my first lecture next week. A hiring decision is a million-dollar decision for an organization. That's what the investment is. If they hire you at $50,000 for 20 years, it's a million dollars. If they hire you at $100,000 for 10 years, it's a million dollars. And the students, they all look at me like, really? I I thought it was like only a $45,000 decision.
Alicain CarlsonNo.
Curt RomIt's really it's a it's a big decision for organizations, whether it be a university or a company. It's something, you know, when we when I hire people, I don't take it very lightly. I look at what what the totality of the investment would be.
Alicain CarlsonAbsolutely. So like having a pre-built-in reputation, a good one, a good one, is is is helpful. So uh, and there's lots of ways to to do that.
Sam HumphreySo yeah, but when we're talking about networking, I think about all of these students, um, undergrads and graduate students that I've met at these conferences and that are at my university. And I I like remember what it's like to be starting out, and and it can be daunting to maybe hear your advice that you have to maintain all these connections and be part of all these organizations and maintain a network. Um, so how how would you what would you recommend to students who want to maintain a network? You know, they've gone to a conference or something, but they don't quite know what to do.
Alicain CarlsonYeah, and you know, I mean, I I rattled off all those things that I'm involved in. But, you know, I mean, I've been in my professional career for 10 years now. And that's those types of things, being involved in that level and those types of things is something that is like personally like near and dear to my heart and part of who I want to be as a professional in the industry. So, you know, that networking journey uh is gonna look different for everybody. So so yeah, if that was daunting to hear like the five organizations that I rattled off, I totally understand. I do that to my colleagues too. They're like, how do you have time for all this? I frankly don't know, but sometimes, but somehow I do it. Um, but it's gonna be different for everybody. So, I mean, I think as a as a student, just making sure that you are that your major professor understands that you that this isn't it something that you're interested in pursuing and you want to like go to an ASHS conference in order to uh you know network with other academics and industry um professionals and that you want to present and put yourself out there. Um and you know, if there are local local events where you can get involved and like give talks, like it's you know, also sometimes students are like, well, I've got to travel across the country, you know, 30 days, 30 weeks of the year in order to build my network. No, no, no. Start small, start local, like be engaged in grower meetings, um, you know, anything that comes through your university, um virtual uh options, and just you know, maybe plan to do one or two new things each semester that just help you meet a new person or engage with a new group in a different way. And um then, you know, just send a follow-up email to someone new that you meet and say, hey, you know, thanks for taking the time to have that conversation with me. I I learned a lot about, you know, blah, blah, blah. Um, you know, can I reach out to you again in the future if I have any questions on blah, blah, blah? And people be like, yeah, great, sure. Yeah, anytime. But then, and then just I don't like keep those people in mind. Like, it doesn't mean that you have to plan a phone call with every single person that you meet at a conference on a monthly basis in like order to maintain a relationship. Like, that's not what this is about. You know, you're not gonna start dating them. Like, it's just a you've made a professional connection and you know, have the follow-up, leave a good impression, and then you know, if they come to mind in the future, reach out, connect. Um, LinkedIn has become a phenomenal resource for building your like professional network. Um, you know, if I meet someone in person, I generally try to find them on LinkedIn to like have that kind of follow-up afterwards and uh see you know what they're posting and what they're doing, you know, comment at like, hey, that's super cool. Like, I'm glad you got that opportunity. Um, but then also post what you're doing to kind of people keep to keep people up to date on the opportunities that you're getting and like recognition and milestones that you're accomplishing in your career to help people like cheer you on and like you know, be invested in your development. And especially as a grad student, I feel like that's it's it's a great time to start because people like to cheer on and support people who are who are building their careers and like coming up in the industry. Like it's it's uh yeah, everyone yeah likes to support that.
Curt RomWell, you know, that that's a really nice thing about horticulture is we are, I think, overall very mutually supportive
and and we enjoy seeing uh success of our peers. I I want to transition back to the plants piece. Uh a little while ago, you said something that caught my attention, and I just wrote a note to myself. It was about the this the California spring trials. Give me the rundown on that. You know, I'm I'm I am a horticulturist. I've kind of heard about these. I I work in more the the fruit world. Tell me about the California Spring Trials, give it tell us what we need to know.
Alicain CarlsonYes. So the California Spring Trials is is kind of like fashion week for for flowers. And yeah, yeah, you know, because colors, trends, you know, all that, what's new. Um, and we get to show off our you know latest and greatest innovations um in the breeding world. So it happens every like late March, early April, kind of depending on when the how like Easter falls in that the time period. Um, and all the the uh flower breeding companies set up sites along uh the California coast from uh north where we are in Gilroy, like the San Jose area, down to Southern California. Um and uh we host ours at our breeding site that's in California. A lot of flower breeding companies have breeding sites in California, but the ones that don't set up um a show uh along the the travel course there. And it's uh a week-long show where we open our doors to to the industry for free. You just you gotta register, but it doesn't cost anything. You just gotta get yourself to California and up and down the coast for four days. Um, and you come into our site and we we set up our our greenhouse with all of our new varieties. Uh, we show like different retail inspiration. Uh we have technical displays that share like some of the like the trialing that we're doing and the science that we're learning behind it. Um and yeah, like it's our opportunity to host uh the broker representatives that go out and you know sell genetics to growers and um have growers come and see everything, uh like tag companies, um the uh and in and students. I really like to have more students and um uh faculty like bring student groups out to CAS um to see what's going on and like meet all the different people that are involved in uh having careers in in breeding companies. So we we hosted a um an NC State group uh last year that um uh that Dr. Knuth brought out that was really phenomenal to have that group. And we took them through our display, talked about our genetics, but also talked about careers in in floriculture. And so it was it was nice to kind of have them in our house to like show, hey, this is who we are. Um so then all the breeding companies, they they set up uh displays with their new varieties, and it's a big show. We have lunch every day. Um so yeah, it's a it's a really fun event for learning and education and networking and seeing cool new plants.
Sam HumphreyThat is so exciting. Oh my goodness. I have never been. I have heard about it like in the ether. So it really helps to have your description of it and to know that students are invited to come. How would you recommend if I'm a grad student and I'm interested, but my PI might not be going, how would you recommend students get involved or visit?
Alicain CarlsonI mean, really, it's just uh a matter of coordinating your travel to get to the sites. Um the the National Garden Bureau has a great website. It's key Caspringtrials. I think. Um, but if you just search California Spring Trials, it it comes up. Um uh that takes you through like a sample uh travel schedule. So you just gotta plan your travel out there and like make it to the sites and you register uh via NGB to like, hey, I'm gonna be at Syngenta on this day, and you know, then I'm gonna go to Danziger, and then I'm gonna go to Ball and Duman, and um like yeah, there's a whole bunch of breeders that participate in this. So really it's just uh an individual planning experience. Maybe find some other grad students that might want to attend. Maybe it's something like ASHS could help like coordinate connecting students that want to travel together. I don't know, just thinking out loud. Um, but I think I would uh connect with um, yeah, like you know, find a couple people to travel with and make it make it fun, but you just got to get yourself out there.
Sam HumphreyI'm looking at the site. Thank you for mentioning that. You got the the uh link exactly correct. And I didn't realize there was so much, I guess, scaffolding to help help students and people who haven't been before know what to expect and know how to plan. This is fantastic.
Alicain CarlsonYeah, that's good. We actually just started that NGB, um, just started uh kind of being the overall organization that helps manage cast on behalf of the breeders. Uh, we started it last year. Um and I'm currently the president of NGB. So that was kind of a passion project of mine to get overall more overall organization of that event for the industry because it is so um pivotal to like the launch of our new varieties and like education and and networking. So we're trying to get more people out back to the event. Um, prior to COVID, um, we had much higher attendance numbers, and especially from like there were definitely more student organizations like uh academics that would come out. And then post-COVID, that return hasn't quite come back. So um uh we're putting in a lot more general effort uh as NGB to promote CAST as an event to everybody to remind people, hey, this is still going on, and there's tons of value for all different facets of people who are involved in horticulture.
Curt RomSo if a university comes out there, a faculty member uh and we stop by Syngenta, uh, how does Syngenta like to engage with universities after that? Uh trial gardens uh uh uh collaborating with their research laboratories. How does Syngenta uh from the Garden Show uh kind of forge collaborations with universities? Or what kind of collaborations does Syngenta enjoy with universities?
Alicain CarlsonYeah, so um, you know, we we interact with universities in a few different ways. Um, there's several that we have kind of long-term collaborations with to provide like third-party validation for some of the like disease resistance messaging um that we have. So, you know, we have our internal teams, like I used to be like doing our internal RD research to have a lot of um confidence in the genetic that we're putting out there. But sometimes with things like disease resistance, we like to use um a third-party uh university to do to do the disease resistance testing to give us that extra like stamp of approval that we have disease resistance in our genetics. So, you know, we work with Clemson and Cornell to do to do some of that for our for our genetics. Um we also you know work with um universities to send them product for their um greenhouse management courses or like their floriculture production courses. Um so that way, you know, they don't have to spend money on buying plant inputs for for that that um for that coursework, and they can focus on teaching students how to grow plants uh properly. Um so we like to engage with them just in that way too, providing free of charge plant material uh to support their programs. Um we also work with several academic programs to give kind of advice and direction and and provide plant material for research projects. Um so you know, if if a uh professor reaches out that, hey, I'm you know, I'm trying to do, I'm interested in doing ABC type of research, you know, we'll we'll give our feedback and um you know just help provide some additional expertise and collaboration and plant material.
Curt RomAnd yeah, I think those I think those public-private partnerships are so mutualistically beneficial and they strengthen both sides. So yeah, thanks for working with universities like that. Thanks to Syngenta. I appreciate that.
Alicain CarlsonYeah, it's great.
Sam HumphreyThat is so cool. I didn't realize there was that extent of collaboration and that that Syngenta is so willing. That's really exciting. I have just one last question, and sort of a big picture question. You have had a very colorful career. You have done some amazing and exciting things during grad school and since grad school for for several years now. What would you like students to keep in mind as they're looking into the horizon? And not sure of what their careers hold.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's a good question. Um I think I think the the biggest thing is just to like keep keep your options open. Like it's it's good to have plans and it's good to set a direction because it helps you, you know, kind of move through the short term and like you have to have a goal that you're shooting for, but don't have blinders on to other opportunities because no life isn't isn't a straight path, you know, and like you're personally or professionally, but you know, speaking professionally here, it's um you know, I think we get programmed as children and young adults that like okay, you go through school, you do kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, like it's very linear up until we get to this like grad school point and then like this career where it's like wait, what grade am I going into? Like it's you know, it's not like that anymore. So like you you have to kind of rethink, rethink life from being linear and like your plans and your pathway from being linear to being way more curved, spiraled, maybe circling back a little bit. I, you know, I don't know, going in different directions and just kind of let go of some of the anxiety of that. And like you can't plan everything. And I say this as very much a type A planner, Capricorn, you know, all the way. Like I try to, if I can't plan it, like it gives me anxiety. So I've told myself this a lot. Um, but uh if you if you over try to overplan everything and just try to make it be what you want, you miss out on so many other things that could be really cool that you didn't consider. Um and for me, like I think about this opportunity to be the
head of marketing, like no, I wouldn't have planned to do that or like even considered that would be an option for me as a PhD horticultural scientist, but it's been an amazing growth opportunity and like learning for me to be able to apply my scientific mindset to marketing and to pricing and our product management and just like a breeding organization in general. So um, and if I would have just followed that plan that I had set, I I I would have missed out on all of it. So just keep keep an open mind, keep meeting new people and uh just don't be afraid to be uncomfortable.
Curt RomAnd get your work done.
Alicain CarlsonYes, focused, but not like totally distracted. Yeah.
Curt RomThat was that was my advisor uh mind speaking there. Well, Allison, this has been a tremendously uh enjoyable conversation today. Thank you so much. I mean, we covered a lot of ground. Appreciate all the advice that uh you've given to uh students in early career. Uh thank you for your leadership today, ASHS. As uh I mean you've been an active member, but also you've committed your volunteer time to our organization and obviously other uh important horticultural organizations in the United States. We really appreciate that. But this was delightful. Thank you so much for coming today. Uh I I've really enjoyed the conversation.
Alicain CarlsonYes, same here. And I appreciate the opportunity to do this and uh kind of share some of the things that um I wish I would have heard when I was earlier in my career. So I'm happy to have the opportunity to do that now. So thank you very much.
Curt RomThank you. You have a good rest of your spring and good luck at the California spring trials.
Alicain CarlsonYes, thank you. I hope to see some of these listeners there.
Curt RomOkay.
Sam HumphreyWow, that was a fantastic episode. I I really loved hearing from her. It's so cool. I feel like it never gets old for me hearing how the varied experiences that someone has in grad school or maybe in their early years getting into horticulture, how all those like weird different experiences and interests lead into a fulfilling career. I love hearing about that stuff.
Curt RomYeah, you know, I really liked Alicain had some really good insights. You know, the idea that I know that we as major professors, I'm speaking from experience, we like to keep our students really focused, keep them in the lab, but it's probably to young people's advantage as a student in an early career to look at those other opportunities to be involved in student organizations, both within the program and maybe across campus, clearly to be uh become involved in the career field itself and to make those networking collect connections. I also really like the one observation that she said that you know, not all career paths are straight. Uh they do, you know, they can be stair-stepped, they can take interesting turns, they can circle back. Uh, and her advice that it's important probably to all of us, just to keep our options open. And you know, she's kind of living testimony to that. Uh, the way she was involved as a student, the way she uh started to participate in meetings and present herself. And then when she got that call from Syngenta said, We know that you wanted to be an academic, but would you consider? And all of a sudden that door opened for her. And, you know, look at what that's happened in her career after that. Uh those many doors open. I also loved hearing about the spring trials. I've never been. I'd like to. I'm looking at my calendar already. I know the dates are March 24th to the 27th of 2026. Uh I'm gonna have to look into that.
Sam HumphreyOh, absolutely. And it's it's so cool to hear as well that you meet other academics and you meet other people. You're not just visiting and seeing flowers, but it really is an opportunity to get to talk with people and to talk about collaborations. Um yeah, hearing about how she branched out in different ways really makes me want to join things like the California Spring Trials because in my current work, I I don't have a huge reason, like a direct reason for my PhD to attend something like these trials. But just the knowledge that I would gain about what it looks like to do research and collaborations with industry and how these people talk to each other and what considerations they make, I feel like that would be really valuable in a way that I hadn't thought of before.
Curt RomIt is. You know, it was a really fascinating, interesting, enjoyable conversation today. It's always good to talk with you, Samson. I appreciate that. I really enjoyed our conversation with Dr. Alicain Carlson today. So this is Curt Rom and my co-host, Samson Humphrey. We want to thank all of you for joining our conversation.