THE GLOSSY APPEARANCE OF LEAVES PRODUCES A SIGNIFICANT CONFOUNDING EFFECT WHEN USING CAMERAS TO MEASURE PLANTS IN EITHER GREENHOUSE OR FIELD CONDITIONS. A LEAF'S SHEEN (GLOSS, SEMI-GLOSS, MATTE, FLAT, ETC.) CAN BE QUANTIFIED USING A BIDIRECTIONAL REFLECTANCE FUNCTION. THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DEVELOP A BIDIRECTIONAL REFLECTION CORRECTION METHOD AND ALGORITHM THAT LEVERAGES POLARIZATION TO CORRECT A COLOR MEASUREMENT FOR A LEAF'S SHEEN. ADDITIONALLY, THIS PROJECT WILL STUDY POLARIZATION'S ABILITY TO ASSESS THE MOLECULAR ASPECTS OF A LEAF'S PHENOTYPE. TO THIS END, WE WILL DEVELOP A HANDHELD MUELLER MATRIX POLARIMETER THAT CAN BE USED TO MEASURE LEAVES IN THE FIELD. LEAVES FROM DIFFERENT CORN VARIETIES WILL BE QUANTIFIED USING THIS HANDHELD UNIT AND OUR MAST-BASED PHENOTYPING IMAGING POLARIMETER. THESE DATA WILL BE COMPARED TO GROUND TRUTH FROM E.G., ENZYMATIC, COLORIMETRIC, 1D-NMR, AND MASS-SPECTROMETRY BASED ANALYSES, TO INVESTIGATE WHETHER POLARIMETRY MEASUREMENTS CORRELATE TO METABOLIC CONCENTRATION IN SIGNIFICANT WAYS THAT COULD BE USED FOR PHENOTYPIC MEASUREMENTS.