Madelaine earned her B.S. in Biology-Chemistry from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa in the Fall of 2004. Her focus on genetics and developmental biology during her undergraduate and honours degrees led her to the graduate program at UC Berkeley, where she can combine classical training in plant morphology and evolutionary biology with solid techniques borrowed from plant developmental genetics. Madelaine's dissertation project focuses on the role of teosinte branched-like genes in the development of symmetry across Monocots.
Madelaine's passions outside the plant kingdom include playing field hockey, singing in the choir, and tutoring students in Math, English, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
