Sarah Placella founded Root Applied Sciences after realizing that farmers struggle to get decision-critical information for pathogen management. She applies techniques she learned as a scientist and researcher to provide actionable insights to growers. Placella worked at startups in biotech and agtech before starting Root. She has a bachelor’s degree in earth and planetary sciences from Johns Hopkins University, a Ph.D. in soil microbial ecology from UC Berkeley, and postdoctoral experience at Michigan State and INRAE, a national research institute in France.