Georgia has successfully completed her admission to candidacy exam and has transferred to a PhD program in the Gunawardena lab.

Georgia began working in the Gunawardena lab in 2015 as a volunteer and continued her research on lace plant PCD during an Experiential Learning course. During this hands-on course, she investigated the balance between reactive oxygen species and antioxidants in lace plant development, and her research from this project contributed to a manuscript published in Plants. Georgia then pursued a Special Topics course, examining autophagosome production during lace plant PCD. Georgia completed her Honours research in the Gunawardena lab, funded by an NSERC USRA and Sarah Lawson Research Scholarship. Her study examined the role of auxin signalling in leaf remodelling. Georgia received the Keith Winterhalder Undergraduate Travel Award to present her Honours research at the54th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Botanical Association / L'Association Botanique du Canada (CBA-ABC). In February 2018, she was awarded the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Graduate Scholarship to begin her graduate studies in the Gunawardena lab.

Georgia’s current research projects include the role of anthocyanin in lace plant development. Georgia is extremely excited about continuing her work in the lab with such interesting and novel projects, as well as being able to work with several of the talented and encouraging lab members.

In her spare time, Georgia loves gardening, hiking and playing the ukulele. She is passionate about volunteering and teaching students. Georgia frequently volunteers with the Atlantic Science Links Association (ASLA), Let’s Talk Science, Regional Halifax Science Fair, and Doors Open Halifax.