[media-credit name=”Dan Raffa” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]

Every semester, Carlmont’s biotechnology teachers Tina Doss and Dan Raffa arrange for six science related speakers to give lectures to students, teachers, and parents.

For this year’s final presentation, Dr. Peggy Lemaux came to Carlmont High school on Apr. 27 to give the last science lecture of the school year.

Lemaux had a background in both agriculture and plant genetics and she studied at the University of California, Berkeley.

The lecture focused mainly on how to genetically modify plants and how genetically modified plants could help the world.

In many poor countries, agriculture is a serious issue. No country has risen out of poverty without increasing their agricultural productivity first.

Lemaux and her team works to genetically modify sorghum, one of the five top cereal crops.

Their main goals are to make it more available and increase the amount made to benefit the low-income population of the world.

Carlmont’s sophomore student Jackie Li commented, “I really learned a lot about how science in general could benefit the earth and she helped me get a taste of what it would be like to be a scientist.”