Can you share first-hand anecdotes when having a diverse set of colleagues and their experiences and viewpoints helped advance plant biology?
In the medical field for example, when women were allowed into the workforce, for the first time a lot of diseases that were specific to women started getting attention and eventually solutions were found (I will share the link to the article if I find it again).
Working in southern Oklahoma, some farmers and ranchers we interact with have also acknowledged the benefits of adopting certain farming practices in China, Bangladesh and India that were shared by postdocs emigrating from these countries.
Anyone else willing to share their stories? I would love to write an article rounding up these stories.
I will end with this quote I read on the cover of a book about the Pixar Studios by Ed Catmull, which is true of science as well -
"Creativity is not strictly a well of ideas but an alchemy of people’’