Faculty
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
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.
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.
Daniel Foster
Associate Professor of Agricultural & Extension Education
Access to agricultural education, specifically critically examining global professional pedagogical practice vision in current and future agricultural educators.
David Geiser
Professor of Mycology
Genomics of fungi, applied to the evolution of plant and animal disease, toxin production, and beneficial roles. Fungal phylogenetics and population genetics, especially in Fusarium, and sequence-based identification tools. Identification of unique pathogen-specific genomic regions in pathogens, and diagnostic markers.
Heather Grab
Assistant Professor of Applied Systems Ecology
The ecological drivers of insect populations on working lands and application of those principles to reduce conflicts between wild and human systems.