Diane Beckles
Dr. Beckles' work focuses on regulation of carbon allocation in plants and how this changes in response to environmental stress; starch granule biosynthesis and molecular structure and; postharvest quality of horticultural crops. Click here to visit Dr. Beckles' faculty page.
Faculty Emeriti Alan Bennett
Dr. Bennett’s research program focuses on the genetic modification of plant quality and, particularly, on the improvement of the postharvest characteristics and the enhancement of plant quality. They approach issues of development and postharvest performance with a combination of biochemical, genetic and genomic experimentation in order to understand the regulation and basis of fruit production and quality. Click here to visit Dr. Bennett's faculty page.
Eduardo Blumwald
Dr. Blumwald’s research program is multidisciplinary in nature, combining physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, genomics and proteomics. The general objectives of our work are: (i) the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate ion homeostasis in plants. Click here to visit Dr. Blumwald's faculty page.
Faculty Emeriti Kent Bradford
Dr. Bradford’s research and teaching interests are in seed biology, production and quality. He is the Director of the Seed Biotechnology Center, which works closely with the seed and plant breeding industry to conduct research that facilitates breeding, cultivar development, seed production and seed quality assessment and conservation. Click here to visit Dr. Bradford's faculty page.
Emeriti Faculty Roger Chetelat
Dr. Chetelat’s lab studies the reproductive barriers that limit hybridization between cultivated and wild tomato species. Their focus is on unilateral incompatibility, a prefertilization barrier, and they are cloning the underlying genes and exploring their relationship to self-incompatibility. Click here to visit Dr. Chetelat's faculty page.
Luca Comai
Dr. Comai’s lab is involved in two areas pertinent to breeding. In the first, they study genome regulation, hybridization, and heterosis responses in chromosome copy number variants and interspecific hybridization. Click here to visit Dr. Comai's faculty page.
Doug Cook
Four main areas of research define the Cook laboratory: Analysis of legume genome evolution by means of comparative genomics and phylogenetic methods; Development of genomic resources for genetic improvement of crop legume species, particularly in the developing world; Genetic, molecular and cell biology of signaling and development during symbiotic nitrogen fixation; Functional genomics of bacterial disease susceptibility and resistance in cultivated grapes. Click here to visit Dr. Cook's faculty page.
Emeriti Faculty Jan Dvorak
Dr. Dvorak’s principal interest is plant structural genomics, focusing on the physical mapping, genome sequencing and the development of marker technologies for plant breeding and genetics. Additional interests are crop evolution, crop genetic diversity, genome evolution and plant evolution. Click here to visit Dr. Dvorak's faculty page.
Emeriti Faculty Robert Gilbertson
Dr. Gilbertson is interested in utilizing various approaches to assess plant pathogen diversity and to apply this information in the development of disease resistant varieties through collaboration with plant breeders. He is also interested in developing improved pathogen detection and inoculation methods in order to facilitate improved screening of crop varieties, germplasm and progenies for disease resistance to a variety of pathogens. Click here to visit Dr. Gilbertson's faculty page.
Dan Kliebenstein
The major question that Dr. Kliebenstein’s lab is studying is how and why plants make secondary metabolites. Secondary metabolites are plant compounds that provide the taste, flavor, color and medicinal activities that people associate with specific plants. Click here to visit Dr. Kliebenstein's faculty page.
Emeriti Faculty Ann Powell
Dr. Powell’s research investigates plants that produce edible fruit to improve the quality and production of human food. They study the biological processes accompanying and causing deterioration, particularly after harvest, with the intention of developing varieties with improved quality characteristics. Click here to visit Dr. Powell's faculty page.
Pam Ronald
Dr. Ronald’s lab use genomic, proteomic, and informatic tools to study rice perception, signaling, and response to biotic and abiotic stress. Because of its diploid genetics, small genome size, extensive genetic map, available genome sequence, and relative ease of transformation, rice is a model for other monocots. Click here to visit Dr. Ronald's faculty page.
Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra
Dr. Ross-Ibarra’s lab studies the evolutionary genetics of crops and their wild relatives, focusing primarily on maize. Click here to visit Dr. Ross-Ibarra's faculty page.
Dan Runcie
Dr. Runcie is an assistant professor in the Department of Plant Sciences. Using statistics, models, and lab experiments, he looks at how plants respond to changing environments. He completed his Ph.D. at Duke University and was a postdoctoral scholar in the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology before joining the faculty in 2015. Click here to visit Dr. Runcie's faculty page.