Clara Lebow Email & Phone Number

I am a senior laboratory technician at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in the lab of Chris Topp and in the X-ray imaging facility managed by Keith Duncan. Through our work we develop and refine innovative imaging techniques for plants, roots, and soil, with an emphasis on root system architecture. The nature of X-ray imaging allows us to nondestructively scan anything from grown corn plants to root cells and create 3D models based on those scans. With significant investment from Valent BioSciences, Sumitomo Chemical Company, and the Danforth Center, we have a North Star Imaging X5000 large format high resolution X-ray tomography (XRT) instrument, and a ZEISS Xradia 520 Versa X-ray Microscope (XRM), the first of its kind worldwide to be located at a plant science institute.Before coming to work at the Danforth Center I graduated with my master’s degree in Biology in 2020 with a thesis exploring glare reduction by dark facial markings and bills in birds. To do this I first used spectroscopy to measure feather color and irradiance from sunlight as a measure of glare. I then analyzed the microstructure of bird feathers using scanning electron microscopy. Between undergraduate and graduate school, I worked seasonal wildlife and forestry jobs with the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and Oregon State University on the west coast. For my undergraduate degree I double majored in Biological Aspects of Conservation and Art, through which I learned outdoor field skills and digital art skills.