Faculty & Research Interests

The faculty of the Department of Plant Biology & Pathology consists of over 50 members with research and teaching emphases in areas of Molecular Biology, Biotechn ology, Natural Products, Plant Breeding and Genetic Improvement, Plant Diversity, Plant Management, Plant Pathology and Horticultural Engineering. We also have a strong extension component that seeks to provide service to and impact plant industries locally and globally.

Current Faculty

1. Albert Ayeni -- weed management, sustainable crop production, and international collaborations in Agriculture and Ru ral Development
2. Jerry Baron -- plant management/plant pathology: horticultural crop pest management
3. Faith Belanger -- plant pathology/molecular biology/biotechnology: turfgrass molecular biology; endophyte interaction
4. Joan W. Bennett -- Mycology and Microbial genetics
5. Stacy Bonos -- plant breeding and genetic improvement: inheritance of fungal resistance in turfgrass; molecular markers; turfgrass breeding
6. Chee-Kok Chin -- plant diversity/natural products/plant breeding and genetic improvement : asparagus improvement; bioactive fatty acids
7. Bruce Clarke -- plant pathology: turfgrass pathology, ectotrophic root infecting fungi
8. Rong Di -- molecular biology/biotechnology: molecular biology; viral infection; nutraceuticals; biofuels
9. Hugo Dooner -- molecular biology/biotechnology: functional genomics; homologous meiot ic recombination analysis in maize
10. Edward Durner -- plant management: applied physiology; statistics
11. Joel Flagler -- people-plant relationships: horticultural therapy, ornamental horticulture
12. Chaim Frenkel -- Post harvest biology/ Cold stress/ Natural products/ Vanilla
13. Cyril R. Funk -- plant breeding and genetic improvement: breeding; underutilized breeding and genetic perennial food crops; pest resistance; stress tolerance
14. Thomas J. Gianfagna -- plant diversity/natural products/plant management: Plant natural products and human health, endophytic fungi, mechanisms of disease resistance
15. Joseph Goffreda -- plant breeding and genetic improvement: peach, apple, and aprico t breeding
16. Ann B. Gould -- plant pathology: woody and herbaceous ornamental crop pathology
17. Stephen Hart -- plant management: turfgrass and ornamental weed management
18. Joseph Heckman -- plant management: soil fertility; plant mineral nutrition
19. Zane R. Helsel -- Agriculture Energy, Field a nd Forage Crop Production
20. Melvin Henninger -- plant management: plant management: potato and vegetable crop horticulture
21. Bradley I. Hillman -- plant pathology/molecular biology/biotechnology: plant and fungal virology; fungal molecular biology; biocontrol
22. Bingru Huang -- Turfgrass stress physiology/biotechnology and turfgrass management
23. Arati A. Inamdar -- Understanding the mechanisms of human diseases using Drosophila melanogaster: Human stem cell expert: Fungal volatile organic compounds mediated health risks
24. Harry Janes -- plant management: controlled environmental agriculture; plant environmental interaction
25. Gojko Jelenkovic -- molecular biology/biotech nology: transgenic plants; gene isolation; gene characterization
26. H. Rodolfo Juliani -- Medicinal and aromatic plants/natural products: Chemical diversity, bioactivities, biotechnology, quality assurance and quality control. International development through production of natural products
27. Donald Kobayashi -- plant pathology/molecular biology/biotechnology: bacterial biocontrol agents; gene expression; gene regulation
28. Slavko Komarnytsky -- Pharmacogenomics of botanicals and nat ural products; translational research of pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome and diabetes; production of recombinant proteins in plants
29. Norman Lalancette -- plant pathology: tree fruit pathology; epidemiology and plant disease control
30. Eric Lam -- molecular biology/biotechnology: plant gene expression; programmed cell death
31. Michael Lawton -- plant pathology/molecular biology/biotechnology: plant pathogen interactions in higher and lower plants; targeted gene replacement in Physcomitrella patens
32. Thomas Leustek -- molecular biology/biotechnology: biochemistry and molecular biology of plant metabolism
33. Brad Majek -- plant management: vegetable and fruit weed control
34. Pal Maliga -- molecular biology/biotechnology/ plant breeding and genetic improvement: plastid molecular biology
35. David R. Mears -- plant management: controlled environment agriculture; greenhouse systems
36. Richard Merritt -- Plant breeding and physiology: bedding plant physiology and production; energy conservation
37. William Meyer -- plant breeding and genetic improvement: turfgrass breeding
38. Thomas Molnar -- plant breeding and genetic improvement: ornamental and edible tree crops
39. James Murphy -- plant and soil management: turfgrass management
40. Elwin Orton -- plant breeding and genetic improvement: woody ornamental breeding
41. Thomas Orton -- Plant breeding and genetic improvement: vegetable crops; extension in value-added systems development
42. Peter Oudemans -- p lant pathology: cranberry fungal genetics and taxonomy
43. Ilya Raskin -- molecular biology/biotechnology/plant diversity/natural products: phytopharmaceuticals; molecular biochemistry; recombinant protein production
44. John Sacalis -- plant diversity/natural products: cut-flower postharvest physiology; turfgrass endophytes; natural products
45. Rod Sharp< /a> -- international programs and department development
46. James E. Simon -- plant diversity/natural products/ plant breeding and genetic improvement: new crop development, plant domestication
47. Ajay P. Singh -- Pharmacokinetics studies/Natural product chemistry/Medicinal Chemistry
48. Lena Struwe -- Global plant diversity, conservation, and evolution, b iogeography, ethnobotany and sustainable bioprospecting of natural products
49. Maruisz Tadych - plant diversity, natural products; fungal biology and taxonomy
50. Nilgun Tumer -- molecular biology/biotechnology: molecular biology; cellular translation; viral infection
51. Aurea Vasconcelos -- molecular biology/biotechnology: organelle devel opment, function and regulation
52. Nicholi Vorsa -- plant breeding and genetic improvement/ plant diversity/natural products: blueberry and cranberry breeding, genetics
53. Dan Ward --
54. Naohide Watanabe -- plant molecular biology/biochemistry/biotechnology: plant gene expression; programmed cell death; stress tolerance
55. James F. White Jr. -- plant pathology/plant diversity/natural products: endophytic fungi; fungi and grass interrelationships
56. Qing-Li Wu -- natural products chemistry and plant medicine
57. George Wulster -- plant management: environmental and chemical modification of crop growth and development
58. C. Andrew Wyenandt -- veg etable pathology, fungicide resistance management, Phytophthora (P. capsici) tolerance in bell pepper
59. Ning Zhang -- Population and evolutionary biology of fungi, molecular detection of fungal pathogens.
60. Barbara Zilinskas -- molecular biology/biotechnology: molecular biology and physiology of the response of plants to environmental stress; oxidative stress and antioxidant protecti ve mechanisms; genetic modification of turfgrass species