Season 1, Episode 7
A Plant Biologist
Growing up in the Bronx, Sue Wessler didn’t have a clear path—but she always took the next step forward. Neither of her parents went to college, though they dreamed she would become a doctor. During high school in the late 1960s—amid the Vietnam War protests and women’s rights movement—Sue joined a small but meaningful act of rebellion: a protest so girls could wear pants to school.
That spirit of curiosity and courage followed her to Stony Brook University, where she discovered a love for doing science in the lab and realized she could pursue graduate research instead of medicine. Today, as a Professor of Genetics at UC Riverside, Sue reflects on how those moments of persistence, protest, and discovery shaped her life in science.
I Was Born is a collaboration between LabX and The Science and Entertainment Exchange highlighting the lives of all different kinds of scientists 🧬