Elizabeth Chan
1st Place
Science, Engineering and Math, 2017
Finding more recent articles for botanical and genetic evidence allowed me to gain new perspectives and additional support for theories suggested in older articles.
Elizabeth Chan
All Because of a Cup of Qahwah
Term paper for Plant Biology 143: Evolution of Crop Plants
Project Description
For her term paper in plant science, Chan wrote about the Coffea arabica species and identified the origin of the crop using genetic, linguistic, archaeological, botanical and historical evidence. Chan identified a range of resources through Google Scholar and library databases, obtained books from Shields Library and through interlibrary loan, and referenced primary source data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). To overcome a gap in the scholarly record — a lack of archaeological remains of coffee plants — she redirected one piece of her research to focus on porcelain coffee cups as an indicator of the spread of coffee consumption.
In Their Own Words
Read Elizabeth’s reflective essay from their Lang Prize application.