Dr. Ma is the Director of the Ornamental Plant Germplasm Center (OPGC) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science at the Ohio State University. Prior to joining OSU, she was an Assistant Research Professor at Washington State University. She obtained her M.S. degree from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Ph.D. degree from the Washington State University. Her research is centered on the fields of genetics, genomics and breeding on ornamental plants. Through implementing multi-omics technologies, she is interested in developing genetics and genomics resources and tools to enable the development of aesthetics-enhanced, disease-resistant, and climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable ornamental plants, as well as enhancing the scientific knowledge of germplasm collections at OPGC.