University of Georgia Department of Plant Biology

Patrick Westfall, an alum from the Momany lab, is a Senior Scientist at Amyris, Inc. in Emeryville, CA. He is developing a synthetic biology platform for the production of renewable fuels and chemicals.

Bioenergy: Georgia's new Bioenergy Science Center is one of three centers funded by the U.S. Dept of Energy that aim to make cellulosic biofuels from e.g. switchgrass cost competitive with gasoline by 2012.

Xiaorong Lin, a Plant Biology alum from Michelle Momany’s lab, is now an assistant professor at Texas A&M University working on fungal pathogenesis and antifungal drugs.

The Herbarium group is actively involved with floristic studies in the Southeast. Here S. Lee Echols examines epiphytes growing on a live oak on Cumberland Island, a National Park in Georgia.

Shu-Mei Chang and Chris Peterson designed a new course to prepare education students for teaching science to elementary education students. The course is entitled Life & Earth Science.

Green every day: The department maintains seven greenhouses with a floor area of approximately 24,000 sq. ft., a transplant garden area and lath house, 18 growth chambers, and three growth rooms.

Jenny Cruse-Sanders, a Plant Biology alum, is the director of research and conservation at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Read about Jenny's career and continued connection to UGA in our newsletter.

Did you know? The Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) is a valuable resource for research focusing on the ecology of southeastern plants and habitats.

Tyler Kartzinel, a graduate student in the Trapnell lab, is examining the effects of landscape variation and mycorrhizal fungi on the distribution of a neotropical epiphytic orchid and its genetic diversity.

Haibao Tang, a Plant Biology alum from Andy Paterson's lab, is now the Senior Bioinformatics Engineer in Plant Genomics at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland.

Our alum Steve Franks is an associate professor at Fordham University in NY. Read the Science article about the project Steve and other plant evoluntionary biologists are doing collecting and banking seeds.

Luanna Prevost, a recent grad in the Peterson lab, investigated ecological impacts of deforestation on biodiversity in Costa Rica. She received the Duncan Award for excellence in research, teaching & service.

The Malmberg lab uses genetic and genomic approaches to study carnivorous pitcher plants (Sarracenia).

Clint Oakley, a graduate student in the Schmidt lab, investigates coral carbon fixation and their response to climate change. Clint was awarded a prestigious EPA STAR Fellowship for this research.

R. Kelly Dawe will oversee a $5,014,464 grant that may result in the development of artificial corn chromosomes that can successfully reproduce desirable traits, such as drought or disease resistance.