Jon Davis is a North Carolina native from Buncombe County and a graduate of NCSSM. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Reed College and a master’s degree in botany from the University of Georgia. He has taught for Durham Public Schools, the Duke University Talent Identification Program, and the Science House at NC State University. He has led summer teacher workshops for NCSSM and the NC Biotechnology Center and has taught a variety of courses and seminars at NCSSM in the areas of genetics, botany, biotechnology, precision agriculture, vertical farming, human evolution, and environmental science. Most of his teaching has been at a distance, via videoconference and online, traveling around the state to provide hands-on labs. He loves connecting student researchers to global opportunities to promote sustainable economic growth. Following a short stint consulting at Google in 2014, he has been integrating Arduino microcontrollers into hydroponic and traditional gardens to better understand growing conditions. Going forward he would love to work with entrepreneurial-minded students to engineer new tools of scientific discovery.