Rebecca Smith joined the UW–Madison faculty in August 2024 as an assistant professor in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences. Funding for this position comes from the Dairy Innovation Hub, which has supported over a dozen faculty positions so far at UW–Madison, UW–Platteville and UW–River Falls. Her position is also part of RISE-EARTH, the sustainability-themed focus area of the university’s Wisconsin RISE Initiative strategic hiring effort to solve grand challenges. 

What is your hometown? Where did you grow up?
I was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. For a point of reference, Winnipeg is directly north of Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota, and is also close to the longitudinal center of Canada.

What is your educational/professional background, including your previous position?
I earned my bachelor’s in botany (honors) at the University of Manitoba and then got my PhD in botany at the University of British Columbia. I moved from Vancouver to Madison for my postdoctoral research in John Ralph’s lab as part of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) and continued on as a scientist in GLBRC until I accepted my faculty position in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences with support from the Dairy Innovation Hub.

What is your field of research, and how did you get into it?
I study the plant cell wall, more specifically a polymer in the cell wall called lignin, at basic biological and applied levels. I fell in love with plant biochemistry and specialized metabolism as an undergrad and was excited to start studying the cell biology of lignin in grad school because it sits at the intersection of primary and specialized metabolism. My research as a postdoc and staff scientist expanded on my lignin work by identifying ways lignin can be engineered in bioenergy crops to improve cell wall digestibility for biofuel and bioproduct production.

What are the main goals of your current research and outreach programs?
In my current position, I’m excited to expand my knowledge of the cell wall and lignin to address different challenges related to dairy sustainability. As part of the Dairy Innovation Hub, my lab will be working to leverage the power of the cell wall to improve cell wall digestibility, reduce methane emissions and increase carbon sequestration. We are aiming to find plant engineering strategies that will address farmers’ biggest challenges in the forage crops they are growing.

What was your first visit to campus like?
I first visited campus in the last year of my graduate studies. I came to John Ralph’s lab to run some experiments for my thesis and was impressed by how much there was to do around campus!

What’s one thing you hope students who take a class with you will come away with?
I hope that students will come away from my courses with an appreciation for how complex and fascinating plants are. The genetic engineering possibilities in plants are vast, but plants also have an amazing amount of natural variation, particularly in specialized metabolism.

Do you feel your work relates in any way to the Wisconsin Idea? If so, please describe how.
Yes, it does! My research in bioenergy and dairy sustainability embodies the Wisconsin Idea because it is focused on finding innovative ways to address crop-related challenges in the bioenergy and dairy industries that will directly impact the future of agriculture in Wisconsin.

What’s something interesting about your area of expertise you can share that will make us sound smarter at parties?
Some of the cells that put lignin in their cell walls die very quickly so that they can conduct water through the plant body, but lignin deposition continues after the cells die. This post-mortem lignification occurs through the contributions from living adjacent cells and is referred to as the good neighbour hypothesis, demonstrating that even plant cells need a little help from their neighbours from time to time.

What are your hobbies and other interests?
I really enjoy hiking, camping and paddling (sometimes all on the same trip) with family and friends, discovering new locations for fun outdoor adventures, and finding live music around Madison. I love bike commuting to campus every day. Even in the middle of winter, catching the sunrise over the lake from the bike path is unbeatable! Baking is another one of my hobbies – there are so many parallels between following an experimental protocol and following a recipe, but baking definitely yields tastier results!