Adam Flanders
He/Him
I am gay and I am a plant geneticist.//
I grew up in Maine, a state filled with greenery and people who appreciate the natural world. My family is very accepting and so I felt comfortable coming out at age 14. Unfortunately my high school was less welcoming, but I found creative ways of standing my ground, such as starting a Gay-Straight Alliance. My AP courses, especially biology, provided me with an escape from the daily bullying as students in those courses were more open-minded. In my junior year of high school I got involved in LGBTQ civil rights advocacy that lasted through college.
I’ve always loved gardening and molecular biology, so my studies naturally led me to plant genetics. While at the University of Maine I became an officer for Wilde-Stein, one of the nation’s oldest LGBTQ college organizations. I later moved to San Diego where I work in molecular plant biology. My team is engineering plants to drawdown carbon as part of the larger effort to slow climate change. Southern California is a very different place from Maine, but I love the community and the sunny weather! Scuba diving, roller blading, 3D printing, computer programming, environmentalism, and animal welfare are some of my other interests.