Emma Scales

About

Emma is a biologist, artist, and science advocate. As a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, she researches the molecular underpinnings of symbioses in fungi and bacteria. She is broadly interested in how beneficial biotic interactions between diverse organisms shape ecosystems and drive evolution.

In 2025, she co-founded and co-led the McClintock Letters initiative, a nationwide op-ed writing campaign that allowed people to hear directly from scientists in their own communities about what it is they do and why it matters. Emma's work on this initiative was featured in The New York Times, Science, and more (see press). She worked on this and other science policy projects with the Scientist Network for Advancing Policy (SNAP), of which she is a founding member, and the Cornell Advancing Science and Policy Club, of which she has served as co-President and Vice President.

She believes science communication in biology can serve as a powerful tool to not only drive civic engagement and inform policy, but to reinforce our shared humanity by stoking our inherent wonder and appreciation for the natural world. Outside of work, she moonlights as an oil painter (the background of this website is an Emma original!) and fly fisherman.

Science CV

EDUCATION

Rice University: (2020-2023) B.Sc. in Biosciences with Integrative Biology concentration

Cornell University: (2023-present) Ph.D. in Fungal Biology with minors in Genetics and Microbiology

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Ph.D. Student (2023-present)

Pawlowska Lab, Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Field, School of Integrative Plant Sciences, CALS, Cornell University

Projects:

Using genetics and fluorescence microscopy to probe molecular mechanisms of endosymbiosis between early-diverging mold fungus Rhizopus microsporus and endohyphal bacteria Mycetohabitans sp.;
Describing biological limitations of horizontal transmission of bacterial endosymbionts between fungal hosts;
Elucidating how genetic and experimental host status impacts R. microsporus innate immunity;
Identify symbiosis factors in Mycetohabitans sp.

Independent Undergraduate Researcher (2022-2023)

Bartel Lab, Biosciences Department, Rice University

Projects:

Using multi-omics and gene knockouts to investigate the molecular basis of peroxisomal autophagy in Arabidopsis thaliana

Independent Undergraduate Researcher (2021-2022)

Miller Lab, Biosciences Department, Rice University

Projects:

Investigating geographic and climate determinants of fungal endophyte vertical transmission in native North American grasses

AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS

Research!America Meeting the Moment for Public Health Award, accepting on behalf of McClintock Letters initiative, 2026.

Best Poster, European Fungal Genetics Conference, 2025.

Best Presentation Delivery, Boyce Thompson Institute Post-Graduate Society Symposium, 2025.

Cornell Fellowship, Spring 2026

Cornell Fellowship, Fall 2023-Spring 2024

Echols Scholar, University of Virginia, 2019

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Teaching Assistant, Mycology and Mushrooms of Field and Forest (Fall 2025)

Responsibilities:

Driving students to field trip locations in 12-passenger van, guiding and assisting collection trips
Preparation of specimens for laboratory sessions

Teaching Assistant, Investigative Biology Laboratory course (Fall 2024-Spring 2025)

Responsibilities:

Lead instructor for two three-hour lab sections per week, including lectures and guided activities for 35 students
Grading of all assignments for 35 students including papers and practical exam
Two lectures to ~400 students

SERVICE

Community Engagement

Co-Founder, McClintock Letters initiative (see press), 2025

Founding member, Scientist Network for Advancing Policy, 2025

Education Outreach Intern, Clean Ocean Action — 2016-2018

Institutional

Co-President, Cornell Advancing Science and Policy Club (2025-2026)

Plenary Panel Speaker, Cornell Trustee-Council Annual Meeting (2025)

Graduate Student Member, Search Committee for Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Vegetable Pathology (2025)

Member, PPPMB GSA Professional Development and Colloquium Committee (2025-2026)

Member, PPPMB GSA Fundraising Committee (2025-2026)

Vice President, Cornell Advancing Science and Policy Club (2024-2025)

PRESENTATIONS

Oral presentations

Emma Scales, Maria Laura Gaspar, Olga Lastovetsky, & Teresa E. Pawlowska. What makes a host a host: How fungi perceive & respond to endosymbiotic bacteria. Boyce Thompson Institute Post-Graduate Society Symposium. Ithaca, NY, 2025.

Plenary Panel Speaker, Cornell Trustee-Council Annual Meeting (2025)

Poster presentations

Emma Scales, Maria Laura Gaspar, Olga Lastovetsky, & Teresa E. Pawlowska. What makes a host a host: Prokaryotic endosymbiont accommodation in fungi. Animal-Microbe Symbiosis Gordon Research Conference. Portland, Maine, 2025.

Emma Scales, Maria Laura Gaspar, Olga Lastovetsky, & Teresa E. Pawlowska. What makes a host a host: How fungi perceive & respond to endosymbiotic bacteria. European Fungal Genetics Conference. Dublin, Ireland, 2025.

Emma Scales, Maria Laura Gaspar, Olga Lastovetsky, & Teresa E. Pawlowska. Transcriptional profiling of host and non-host Rhizopus microsporus interactions with endosymbiotic Mycetohabitans sp. B13. Cellular and Molecular Fungal Biology Gordon Research Conference. Holderness, New Hampshire, 2024.