About Me

Hello! My name is Meredith "MJ" Clay. I am from Baltimore, Maryland. I am currently a student at Texas A&M University working to obtain a bacherlors of science in Horticulture, Plant and Environmental Soil Science Crops Emphasis, and a minor in Plant Breeding. Throughout my career at Texas A&M University, I have founded and am vice president of the first acedemic and research-based Cannabis sativa L. collegiate club in America known as the Cannabis Hemp Innovation League (C.H.I.L.). Along with my work with C.H.I.L., I am additionally involved with Agronomy Society and Horticulture Club. 

Throughout the past two years at Texas A&M University, I have been held laboratory occupations pertaining to hemp (Cannabis sativa L.). My first job at the university was with Dr. Michael Thomson at the Crop Genome Editing Laboratory (C.G.E.L.) utilizing CRISPR-Cas9 on Cannabis from fall of 2021 through fall of 2022. In December of 2021, I additionally joined the Industrial Hemp Breeding Laboratory with Dr. Russell Jessup and have been maintaining  this position conducting Cannabis research. 

Admist my career at Texas A&M University, I recieved the honor of being included in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean’s Honor Roll for the Fall 2022 semester. I have additionally been granted opportunity to present my Cannabis research at the 2022 Texas Hemp Summit at Texas A&M University and at the 2023 ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meeting in St. Louis Missouri.