Meet our Principal Investigators
Faculty Labs
TPSC affiliated faculty represent 3 colleges and 6 academic departments on campus.
Our growing community collaborates in unique ways to support sustainable production of food, feed, and biomaterial issues by improving yield, disease resistance, adaptation to a changing environment, plant metabolism, and metabolic engineering.
Together we teach the next generation of plant scientists, engage stakeholders, and facilitate cutting edge science to sustain and improve agricultural productivity.
Areas of Research
- Environmental Microbiology
- Water and Soil Quality
Areas of Research
Fundamental and translational studies towards crop improvement through genome-editing and tissue-culture
Areas of Research
Invasive plant ecology, biofuel ecology, allelopathy, risk assessment, weed science
Areas of Research
Genomics of tree development, ecophysiology and adaptation; molecular genetics of tree maturation, flowering and crown architecture; epigenetic mechanisms and small RNAs in trees; long-distance signaling in trees.
Areas of Research
Regulation of metabolism during seed filling and seed metabolic engineering, multi-omics approaches, plant metabolic engineering
Areas of Research
- Evolutionary ecological genomics
- Genetics in plant defense and physiology
Areas of Research
Population and evolutionary genomics, genome-enabled breeding, evolutionary ecology
Areas of Research
- Plant specialized metabolism
- Poison ivy urushiol metabolism and chemical ecology
Areas of Research
- Abiotic Stress
- Plant Physiology
- Plant Molecular Biology
- Plant Genomics and Bioinformatics
- Plant Specialized Metabolism
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Areas of Research
- Plant genomics and bioinformatics
- Machine learning
- High throughput phenotyping
Areas of Research
- Phytochemical content of fruits and legumes
- Increasing iron bioavailability of legume grains
Areas of Research
- Plant-pathogen interactions
Areas of Research
Dr. Morota investigates the genome–phenome relationship using statistical and quantitative genetics and its application to plant breeding.
Areas of Research
- Regulation of amino acid transport and metabolism in Arabidopsis
- Determinants of seed protein content in soybean
Areas of Research
- Genomics
- Crop Improvement
Areas of Research
- SmartFarm Innovation Network™ : SmartTechnologies for Crop and the Green Industries
- Data Analytics, Decisions, and Machine Learning for Food, Agriculture, Communities, and Health Systems
- Precision agriculture technologies
Areas of Research
- small grains breeding program aims to produce superior wheat and barley varieties for eastern North America
- integrating the latest genotyping and phenotyping technologies to accelerate genetic improvement for new and changing environments
- quantitative genetics theory
Areas of Research
Bacterial motility and chemotaxis; sensing of environmental signals, two-component signal transduction, the speed-variable flagellar motor, flagellotropic phage infection, function of type IV pili in symbiosis, tumor-targeting Salmonella
Areas of Research
- Airborne plant pathogens and ice-nucleating microbes; mycotoxins
Areas of Research
- Investigation of strategies to avoid or reduce frost damage in apple and peach
- Evaluation of strategies to enhance tree yield and annual bearing in apple
- Evaluation of apple varieties, rootstocks and high-density training systems
- Evaluation of strategies to improve apple fruit quality and extend shelf-life of peaches and cherries
- Examining the efficacy of non-chemical methods for controlling major disease of apple and peach
Areas of Research
- Biology
- Functional Genomics
- Biochemistry of Chemical Communication
Areas of Research
- Biochemical and molecular mechanisms of chemical defense fitness in higher plants
Areas of Research
- Genome-based classification and identification of plant pathogens and biocontrol agents
- Biological ice nucleation activity
Areas of Research
- Viral replication mechanisms and virus-host interactions of positive-strand RNA viruses
Areas of Research
- Flavonoid production in stressed potatoes
- Pine drought stress
- Orchid mycorrihizal relations
Areas of Research
- Parasitic plants
- Plant communication
- Weed evolution
Susan Whitehead
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences
Plant evolutionary responses to multi-species interactions; chemical ecology of seed dispersal and fruit defense; domestication and plant defense; agricultural applications of chemical ecology
Areas of Research
- Microbial ecology
- Plant growth promotion
- Rhizobium spp.
- Mycorrhizae
- Land management
- Natural ecosystems
Areas of Research
Characterization of the architecture and localization of the Arabidopsis flavonoid enzyme complex using a variety of molecular, biochemical, and cell biological techniques
Areas of Research
Plant development, hormone signaling, genetic engineering of yield/resistance/added-value crop traits, genetic variation, protein engineering, biosensors, directed evolution, and synthetic biology
Areas of Research
- Identification of aroma and flavor compounds in food systems
- Characterization of aroma/flavor formation pathways
- Convenient synthesis of highly unstable odorants
- Applying novel engineering solutions to existing difficulties in flavor manufacturing
Areas of Research
- Plant Pathology
- Host-microbe interactions
- Data science
Areas of Research
- Soybean breeding
- Crop genetics
Areas of Research
- Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
- Plant Biotechnology
- Controlled-Environment Agriculture
Contact our Program Coordinator or faculty to inquire about studying with our program!