• Determining which traits have the greatest predictive power of plant performance
• Differences in perception of color, structure and texture in the garden 
• Performance of introduced species in climates and cultures that differ significantly from that of their natural range

As Plant Evaluator, Patrick tries to leverage his breadth of experiences in his work. With professional experiences that have varied as widely as working in small-scale urban agriculture to doing medical imaging research, he has a lot of perspectives that he can pull from. It is this wide breath of experiences that informs his perspective on trialing plants for the garden: yes, there are some plants that generally perform better than others, but in a lot of cases, context means everything.

Beyond common performance metrics, Patrick’s interests include looking into what traits are the greatest factors in an individual’s perception of a plant, such as obvious physical traits like flower color or branch structure or less obvious traits like long-term consistent performance over many years and maintenance demands.

Patrick holds a B.S. in Physics from Illinois Wesleyan University and a M.S in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois Chicago. His previous professional experience was focused on imaging technologies and their applications in industry and medicine.