Explore Vesna’s journey in our latest We Are Schmidt Science Fellows film

Vesna Bacheva, a 2023 Schmidt Science Fellow, bridges engineering and plant biology to decode how plants communicate.

Driven by a belief that plants can serve as powerful environmental biosensors, Vesna is pioneering innovative tools to translate the subtle signals they use to respond to their surroundings. These signals, such as changes in color or scent, can reveal valuable insights, alerting us to pollution and climate stress.

In April 2025, Vesna led a groundbreaking study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS, 2025), which solved the mystery of how plants transmit stress signals. Her study demonstrates how shifts in internal pressure within a plant’s vascular system can relay chemical and mechanical messages, allowing it to respond rapidly to environmental challenges.

As part of an interdisciplinary team at the Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems (CROPPS), Vesna also shares her passion for science with the next generation.

At a recent CROPPS hackathon, she guided participants as they transformed plant signaling theories into a programmable communication platform. Here, her cutting-edge research met hands-on creativity to translate theoretical insights into impactful innovation.

Vesna’s research is a prime example of the mission of Schmidt Science Fellows and our commitment to advancing scientific discovery at the intersections of traditional disciplines.

For Vesna, this work isn’t just about decoding nature’s language, it’s about helping us understand and respond to plant needs more effectively, and fostering healthier ecosystems as climate pressures grow. “If we’re able to listen to that conversation, I think we’ll be able to understand what they need and when they need it,” Vesna reflects.