People

Agronomy and agroecosystems; Sustainable crop production; Environmental footprint; International agriculture

Plant systematics; taxonomy, evolution, and phylogenetic relationships of fruit crops and their wild relatives; molecular approaches to phylogeny reconstruction; ethnobotany

Rangeland and pasture management, ecology of grazing lands, grazing systems, drought and climate change adaptation, participatory research

Computational and statistical plant biology, crop and gene network modeling, quantitative and evolutionary genomics

The impact of tree water status on productivity and the water relations and physiological activity of fruit

Plant reproduction: Embryo sac development (Arabidopsis and Rice); Functional genomics: small RNAs, microbiomes (Rice)

Phytonutrient biochemistry and physiology; Biosynthesis, accumulation and function of carotenoids and polyphenols in plants; Targeted improvement of crop phytonutrient composition and content for enhanced nutritional and medicinal values.

Invasion and restoration ecology

Root and rhizosphere biology in managed, urban and natural landscapes. Whole plant responses to environmental stress and a changing climate.

Professor - Research emphases in molecular genetics and breeding of small grains crops.