I’m an ecophysiologist with a particular interest in the ways plants respond to their light environment. Much of my research concerns the dual role of light as both an essential resource and a potential stressor for plants. Most recently, I’ve been curious about light as a factor that influences the timing and pattern of leaf senescence in deciduous trees.

I also think about light as a tool to understand other aspects of plant function. For example, I aim to help describe and interpret the range of functional variation in plant reflectance spectra, which could help researchers monitor plant communities from space.

I’m currently setting up a lab in the Department of Renewable Resources at University of Alberta. From 2020 to 2024, I was a postdoctoral researcher, first in Etienne Laliberté’s lab at Université de Montréal, then in Alain Paquette’s lab at Université du Québec à Montréal. Before that, I did my PhD in the Cavender-Bares Lab at University of Minnesota.

Follow me on Twitter, and please feel free to reach out at shan.kothari@ualberta.ca!