Nicholas Karavolias

Nicholas Karavolias, PhD, was among the Kavli Center's first graduate student Fellows. Upon finishing his PhD in the Plant and Microbial Biology Department, he transitioned to a postdoctoral position in Brian Staskawicz's lab while continuing his work with the Kavli Center as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Broadly, Nicholas's research focuses on the applications of gene editing in agriculture focusing on climate change adaptation. In the lab, he uses CRISPR/Cas9 to understand the development of stomata in rice for improved drought resilience. Nicholas has experience teaching about gene editing around the globe. He is passionate about education as a tool for democratizing access to transformative technologies. Nicholas is hopeful that applications of gene editing can be empowering for growers and consumers worldwide. As a Kavli Ethics, Science, and the Public Fellow, Nicholas sought to explore how gene editing technologies can be leveraged as a paradigm-shifting mechanism to support the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. He is interested in developing frameworks for how applications of gene editing in agriculture can be integrated into sociopolitical systems to meet the needs of marginalized stakeholders.