Lunch & Learn | Route to NWREC

Pedro will share about the passion and curiosity for plant physiology that led him to quit a five-year industry career to become a graduate student at UW-Madison in 2018 and—after completing a PhD—join Dr. Lisa Wasko DeVetter’s group to work on cold hardiness modeling, cold damage analysis, and horticultural practices to mitigate frost damage in raspberry and blackberry. Pedro will share experiences he hopes may be useful for early career scientists.

Originally from Santiago Chile, Pedro Rojas-Barros developed an interest in plants from a very young age, influenced by his father, a horticulturist, and his mother, a landscaper. After finishing high school, Pedro tried playing professional soccer in a Chilean second-division team (Union San Felipe) but was unsuccessful in making it to the final team. Still, he enrolled in the Horticulture program at PUCV in Valparaiso where he earned his BS with a professional specialization in fruit crop production. After a few years of working in the Chilean fruit export industry, he decided to do what he was passionate about and took a shift in his career.