Faculty
Charles Anderson
Chair, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Plant Biology; Co-Director, Center for Biorenewables; 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.
Marcia Buanafina
Research Professor of Biology
Using different grass species and plant measurements to understand cell wall feruloylation. Expression of fungal cell wall-degrading enzymes in plants in order to test if their expression can assist the digestion of polysaccharides and improve the nutritional properties of grasses as a ruminant feed or as a bioenergy crop
Liana Burghardt
Director of the Center for Root and Rhizosphere Biology; 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
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.
Estelle Couradeau
Assistant Professor of Ecosystem Science & Management
Sharifa Crandall
Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology
Drawing from community ecology theory to understand how fungal and oomycete pathogens shape plant disease dynamics, with a focus on root and soil microbiome diversity, structure, and function; how ecological disturbances drive the complex interactions between hosts, microbes, and the environment across time and space and using this information to inform plant disease management.
Francesco Di Gioia
Associate 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.
Francisco Dini-Andreote
Huck Early Career Chair in Microbial Community Ecology, Assistant Professor of Plant Science
Microbiome, plant-microbe interactions, and community ecology. Harnessing the plant microbiome to enhance protection against biotic and abiotic stresses.
Luis Duque
Assistant Research Professor of Root and Tuber Crop Physiology
Jill Hamilton
Director of the Schatz Center for Tree Molecular Genetics; Associate Professor
Genomic basis of climate adaptation, conservation, and restoration genetics.
David Hughes
Huck Chair in Global Food Security; Professor of Entomology and of Biology
Parasite manipulation of host behavior
María del Mar Jiménez Gasco
Professor of Plant Pathology and Environmental Mictobiology; Head, Dept of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology
Jason Kaye
Chair, Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology; Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry
Ecosystem ecology; global change biology; biogeochemistry of nitrogen and carbon cycling in managed and unmanaged ecosystems.
Shanthanu Krishna Kumar
Assistant Professor of Tree Fruit
Tree fruit production. Plant growth regulators. Physiology and source-sink relationships. Crop load management. Post-harvest physiology.
Jesse Lasky
Associate Professor of Biology
Ecological and evolutionary genomics, genetic and ecophysiological basis of adaptation to environmental stress, evolutionary ecology of biological complexity.
