People
Jared Ali
Acting Chair, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology; Director of the Center for Chemical Ecology; Associate Professor of Entomology
Behavior and chemical ecology of multi-trophic interactions, including plant responses to below-ground herbivory and nematode. Insect community ecology, chemical ecology, and coevolution. Trophic cascades, above- and below-ground interactions, chemotaxis of soil nematodes, and evolution of plant defense strategies.
Charles Anderson
Co-Director, Center for Biorenewables; Associate Professor of Biology
In vivo imaging of plant cell wall dynamics. Molecular genetic analysis of genes involved in cell growth. Cell wall biosynthesis in dividing cells. Cell wall engineering for sustainable bioenergy production.
Sally Assmann
Waller Professor of Biology
Molecular biology of plant G-proteins and kinases. Phytohormone regulation of signal transduction and RNA processing. Second messenger regulation of ion channels in plant cells.
Michael Axtell
Distinguished Professor of Biology
Discovery and characterization of plant microRNAs and siRNAs. Functions of microRNAs and siRNAs in the evolution of plant development. Genomics and bioinformatics of microRNAs, siRNAs, and their targets
Terrence Bell
Assistant Professor of Phytobiomes
Soil and root-associated microbiomes, microbiome assembly, microbiome manipulation, disturbance.
Robert Berghage
Associate Professor of Plant Science
Environmental plant physiology. Controlled and modified environments for plant growth. Eco-roofs, rooftop greening, and other uses of plants in distributed stormwater management systems.
Philip Bevilacqua
Co-Director, Center for RNA Molecular Biology; Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
RNA folding in vivo and genome-wide; RNA regulation of gene expression; Ribozyme Mechanism; roles RNA may have played in the emergence of life on early earth
Kathleen Brown
Professor of Plant Stress Biology
Regulation of root development. Root responses to edaphic stress. Identification and genetic mapping of traits for adaptation to edaphic stress.
Donald Bryant
Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology; Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Photosynthesis, structure-function relationships of proteins, gene regulation, and microbial physiology. Cyanobacteria and green sulfur bacteria. Genomics of photosynthetic bacteria.
Carolee Bull
Professor of Plant Pathology; Bacterial Systematics Head; Director of Microbiome Sciences Dual-Title Degree Program
Bacterial systematics, epidemiology, and population biology of bacterial plant pathogens and biological control agents to develop alternatives to synthetic chemicals for plant disease management
Liana Burghardt
Huck Early Career Chair of Root Biology and Rhizosphere Interactions; Assistant Professor of Plant Science
Plant-microbe-climate interactions; the evolution and ecology of legumes and nitrogen-fixing rhizobia; the genomic basis and environment dependence of root, nodule, and mutualism traits; GWAS/transcriptomics/evolve & resequence methodologies
Eric Burkhart
Program Director, Appalachian Botany and Ethnobotany, Shaver's Creek Environmental Center
Jeffrey Catchmark
Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Cellulose synthesis and organization, cellulosic composites and coatings, microbial cellulose production, and chemically powered microfluidic and biological devices and sensors.
Surinder Chopra
Professor of Maize Genetics
Regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis during plant development and plant-pathogen interaction. Epigenetic regulation and allele specific patterns.
Erin Connolly
Professor and Head of Plant Science
Molecular mechanisms of micronutrient transport. Iron uptake and compartmentalization. Metal ion homeostasis
Daniel Cosgrove
Eberly Chair and Professor of Biology
Mechanism of plant growth. Function and evolution of expansins. Biochemistry and rheology of plant cell walls. Growth responses to light, hormones, and water stress and other stimuli.
Wayne Curtis
Professor of Chemical Engineering
Regulation and signal transduction in plant secondary metabolism. Phytoremediation of hydrocarbons. Commercial chemical production in plants and plant tissue culture.
Claude dePamphilis
Director of the Center for Parasitic and Carnivorous Plants; Huck Distinguished Chair in Plant Biology and Evolutionary Genomics; Professor of Biology
Genomics, bioinformatics, and molecular evolution. Origin and diversification of flowers and developmental pathways. Comparative genomics of plants, organelles, and plant gene families. Genomics, evolution, and functional biology of parasitic plants.
Francesco Di Gioia
Assistant Professor of Vegetable Crop Science
Plant nutrition, plant physiological and biochemical response to environmental and abiotic stress conditions, sustainable vegetable production, agrobiodiversity, agronomic biofortification, food and nutrition security.
Sjoerd Willem Duiker
Professor of Soil Management and Applied Soil Physics
David Eissenstat
Professor of Woody Plant Physiology
Plant physiological ecology. Root biology and physiology. Plant carbon and nutrient economies.
Gary Felton
Professor and Department Head of Entomology
Plant-herbivore interactions. Adaptive responses of herbivores to plant defenses. Herbivore cues recognized by plants with specific focus on biochemical and molecular analysis of salivary secretions.
Majid Foolad
Professor of Plant Genetics
Genetic characterization of resistance/tolerance to biotic/abiotic stresses, and genes/QTLs contributing to tomato fruit quality. Investigation of genes/QTLs for directed crop improvement and germplasm enhancement. Tomato cultivar development & release.
David Geiser
Professor of Mycology
Molecular evolutionary genetics of pathogenic and toxigenic fungi.
John Golbeck
Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Light reactions in photosynthesis. Structure and function of photosystem I and the heliobacterial reaction center. Regulation and bioassembly of iron-sulfur clusters in cyanobacteria and plants. Plant and bacterial metalloproteins. Generation using Photosystem I, hydrogenase, and molecular wire technology.
Ying Gu
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Mechanism of cellulose biosynthesis in higher plants. Genetic modification of plant cell wall to scale-up biofuel production.
Mark Guiltinan
J. Franklin Styer Professor of Horticultural Botany; Professor of Plant Molecular Biology; Director, Endowed Program in the Molecular Biology of Cocoa
Plant functional genomics, metabolomics and biotechnology. Identification of key genes for disease resistance and important traits in the tree crop Theoboma cacao, the Chocolate tree.
David Huff
Professor of Turfgrass Breeding and Genetics
Population genetics. Plant evolution and ecology. Crop improvement. Physiological tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress.
María del Mar Jiménez Gasco
Professor of Plant Pathology and Environmental Mictobiology; Head, Dept of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology
Seogchan Kang
Professor of Plant Pathology & Environmental Microbiology
Genetic and cellular mechanisms underpinning plant-fungal interactions with Arabidopsis thaliana and Fusarium oxysporum as a model system. Molecular genetics and comparative genomics of fungal plant pathogens. Bioinformatics.
Teh-hui Kao
Chair, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Plant Biology; Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Molecular, biochemical, and structural bases of the S-RNase-based self-incompatibility system in flowering plants. F-box protein-mediated ubiquitination and degradation of proteins.
Armen Kemanian
Professor of Production Systems and Modeling
Agricultural Systems, Agricultural and Natural Systems Modeling, Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling, Bioenergy Systems, Coupled Hydrologic and Nutrient Modeling, and Plant Competition
Joshua Lambert
Professor of Food Science
Dietary polyphenols in prevention of obesity and fatty liver disease; efficacy and mechanisms of action of food-derived phytochemicals in prevention of lung cancer; biotransformation, bioavailability and potential hepatotoxicity of dietary phytochemicals
Impact of food and medicinal plants and phytochemicals on human health. Role of plant genetics, environmental factors, agronomic practices, and post-harvest processing in moderating the relationship between medicinal and food plants and human health
Jesse Lasky
Associate Professor of Biology
Ecological and evolutionary genomics, genetic and ecophysiological basis of adaptation to environmental stress, evolutionary ecology of biological complexity.
Laura Leites
Associate Research Professor of Quantitative Forest Ecology
Adaptation to climate in forest trees, seed movement under a changing climate, forest ecosystem modeling.
Hong Ma
Huck Chair in Plant Reproductive Development and Evolution; Professor of Biology
Plant development under favorable and stressful conditions; phylogeny and evolutionary biology of plant groups containing major crops and ecologically important species.
Sally Mackenzie
Director of the Plant Institute; Huck Chair of Functional Genomics; Professor of Biology and of Plant Science
Organelle biology and cellular specializations. Plant epigenetics, memory and phenotypic plasticity. Crop epigenetic breeding.
James Marden
Associate Director of Operations, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences; Professor of Biology
How physiological variation within species affects their ecology and evolution. Primarily with insects, but recently also with plants, and a particular interest in allelic variation in the pathogen resistance genes of tropical trees.
Siela Maximova
Research Professor of Plant Biotechnology Co-Director, Endowed Program in the Molecular Biology of Cocoa
Molecular basis of plant-pathogen and plant-endophyte interactions. Biotechnology of tree crops. Development of sustainable energy crops.
Timothy McNellis
Associate Professor of Plant Pathology & Environmental Microbiology
Genetics, molecular biology and physiology of plant interactions with phytopathogenic bacteria. Signal transduction events involved in plant disease resistance. Genetic control of plant hypersensitive cell death.
Gabriele Monshausen
Associate Professor of Biology
Plant cell signaling. Hormonal and mechanical signal transduction in plant growth regulation. Live cell imaging of subcellular microdomains of ionic signaling.
B. Tracy Nixon
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Structural and functional basis of cellulose synthesis. Using Physcomitrella patens and other organisms as model systems, we are learning how plants make cellulose for building new cell wall. The studies use methods of molecular biology and cryoEM to characterize the enzyme as a monomer, and when it assembles into its larger 'Cellulose Synthase Complex '(CSC for short). The aim is to understand cellulose synthesis to explain fundamentals of cell wall biology in plants, and to enable manipulation of its synthesis for applications in fields of bioenergy and materials.
Tanya Renner
Assistant Professor of Entomology
Evolution of chemical and structural defense. Molecular evolution, evolutionary genomics, and transcriptomics. Origins and evolution of carnivorous plants.
Cristina Rosa
Associate Professor of Plant Pathology & Environmental Microbiology
Plant Virology, interaction of plant viruses with their insects as vectors and with their plant hosts. Virus evolution, exploration of plant viromes, viral co-infections, effect of climate change on viral resistant breaking strains. Use of nanotechnologies for virus detection and virus disease management.
Ruairidh Sawers
Assistant Professor of Plant Response to Abiotic Stress
Local adaptation and stress tolerance in crop plants and their wild relatives; plant nutrition; arbuscular mycorrhizae; maize genetics and genomics.
Katriona Shea
Professor of Biology; Alumni Professor in the Biological Sciences
The use of ecological theory in population management.
Ming Tien
Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Characterization and biochemical analysis of cellulose synthesis in a variety of organisms. Mechanism and regulation of fungal degradation of lignin. Dissimilatory Iron reduction.
Yinong Yang
Professor, Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology
Signal perception and transduction in rice-pathogen interactions. Molecular and genomic strategies for increasing disease resistance and drought tolerance in cereal crops.