Cristina Gouin-Paul

Mid-Atlantic Regional Director
Citrus Quarantine Greenhouse and Laboratory Support Scientist
USDA

Cristina Gouin-Paul began her research career at a young age being born to a professor of Horticulture and a landscape architect. Days off from school weren't spent on the playground but in the field helping to set up experiments and taking data. She worked as a laboratory assistant in post harvest physiology, managing a graduate lab and running experiments on ethylene generation in storage fruits while in high school. While in college at the University of Maryland, she worked as a lab assistant with the Fruit Lab at USDA, working on tissue culture of pome crops and managing 2000 tree orchard blocks. In 1991 she joined the citrus quarantine unit at USDA Beltsville, working for the University of Florida, maintaining and working within planta collections of citrus pathogens, where she remains today as a USDA support scientist. Cristina obtained her MS degree from the University of Maryland in 1995 in Horticultural research. She joined Sigma Xi in 1999 as an associate member and became Vice President of the DC chapter soon after. Since 2002, she has been President of the chapter and has worked to keep the chapter vibrant with many events and activities. Other positions in Sigma Xi that she has held are: chair of the Committee on Qualifications and Membership, Associate Director of the Multi-Institutional Constituency, Science fair judge and Annual Meeting photographer.