Dr. Mercer got her BA in Biology at Wesleyan University and her MS and PhD in Applied Plant Sciences at the University of Minnesota.  After a year as a Fulbright Fellow in southern Mexico, Dr. Mercer came to Ohio State University in 2006.  After two years as a postdoc in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, she became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science.  

Members of the Mercer lab study plant evolutionary ecology in agricultural systems.  Of primary focus is the way that ecological processes and evolutionary forces influence important issues in agricultural sustainability, such as conservation of crop genetic resources in centers of origin, biosafety of genetically modified crops, and effects of climate change on agriculture.