Q & A with Maggie Riggs
GEMINI Team Spotlight
Quick Summary
- Learn more about the GEMINI team in our series of team member spotlights
It has been a long while since we've sat down with our team members to learn more about their backgrounds and interests. We are restarting this meet-the-team series for 2025 with Maggie Riggs, our undergraduate researcher turned Junior Specialist!
Please introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, and what is your educational/professional background?
MR: My name is Margaret Riggs and I’m from the Bay Area of California. I graduated from UC Davis with a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology and have been working on the GEMINI project for nearly three years.
What is your role within GEMINI?
MR: I’m currently working as the Jr. Specialist on GEMINI and assist with in-field agronomic measurements along with post-harvest processing of our common bean, cowpea, and sorghum samples. I also collect nutritional quality data from these samples by near infrared spectroscopy.
How did you end up working with GEMINI and what interests you most about this project?
MR: I first started on this project in 2022 as an undergraduate researcher whilst completing my degree at UC Davis. One of the best things about GEMINI is having the opportunity to work not only with an amazing team from the university but also with scholars & experts abroad who share the same goals and interests in this project and how it can aid in alleviating food security struggles in East Africa in the face of climate change.
Is there anything particularly exciting you are working on now or in the near future that you would like to share?
MR: Having had the very special opportunity to travel to Uganda to present our research and meet those experts this past year has given me so much appreciation for the scope of this project and how it stands to have such an international impact. I’m looking forward to soon having a complete set of nutritional data on our harvested samples from 2023.
What do you like to do outside of work (personal hobbies and interests)?
MR: In my free time I enjoy international travel, reading, and spending time in art museums.
