Faculty

Plant Biology Faculty

The 26 faculty members of the Plant Biology Graduate Program represent five departments at the University as well as Five College faculty from Amherst, Hampshire and Smith. The departments at UMass are Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biology, Chemical Engineering, Food Science,and Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences. To find out more about individual faculty, click on their name listed below to link to their faculty home page. Faculty and graduate students have access to major research facilities including: microbial and plant growth facilities, tissue culture facilities, radioisotope laboratories, facilities for bioinformatics, facilities for monoclonal antibody and recombinant DNA work, a DNA sequencing service, a high-field NMR facility, an imaging facility with confocal and electron microscopy and a mass spectrometry facility. There are several greenhouse complexes on campus with a combined total of more than 17,000 sq. ft. of bench, ground and bed space. The Morrill Science Center greenhouses service members of the Biology Department and about half of the greenhouse space is devoted to research projects. The other half is used to maintain a general teaching collection representing more than 680 genera and 1,100 species for courses ranging from angiosperm systematics to plant cell biology. The University of Massachusetts Herbarium is a regional resources with approximately 224,000 mounted vascular plants, algae and bryophytes as well as a fruit and seed collection providing material for systematic studies and plant identification. The Integrated Sciences & Engineering Library provides critical resources for research in the life sciences. PB FACULTY LISTING (alphabetical by last name)
Name	Dept./Office	Phone (413)	Research Interesth Area	Email address

Adler, Lynn	PSIS Fernald 209e	545-1060	Ecology and evolution of plant-insect interactions	lsadler@ent.umass.edu Adler Lab homepage
Alpert, Peter	Biology Morrill 3 - 409	545-4357	Ecology of plant invasion, resource capture and utilization by clonal plants	palpert@bio.umass.edu
Baskin, Tobias	Biology Morrill 3 - 106	545-1533 545-2776	Regulation of plant cell and organ expansion	Baskin@bio.umass.edu Baskin Lab homepage
Bezanilla, Magdalena	Biology Mor. 3 - 122A	545-2885	The role of the actin cytoskeleton in the morphogenesis and development of plant cells	bezanilla@bio.umass.edu
Caicedo, Ana	Biology- Mor 2 - 328	545-0975	Evolutionary genomics of adaptation and divergence in wild, weedy and crop plant species	caicedo@bio.umass.edu Caicedo Lab homepage
Cannon, Maura	Biochem LGRT-822	545-0092	Plant growth and development as influenced by cell wall assembly	mcannon@biochem.umass.edu
Cheung, Alice	Biochem LGRT-B 1226	545-4027 545-4804	Signaling mechanisms in plant growth and reproduction	acheung@biochem.umass.edu
Cooley, Daniel	PSIS Clark 103	577-3803	Ecology of plant diseases, integrated pest management, sustainable agriculture	dcooley@microbio.umass.edu Cooley Lab homepage
DaCosta, Michelle	PSIS Stockbridge 11	545-2547	Plant responses to environmental stresses, with emphasis on drought and temperature stresses of grasses.	mdacosta@psis.umass.edu
Ellison, Aaron	Harvard Forest	978 724-3302	Community Ecology	aellison@fas.harvard.edu
Han, Susan	PSIS French 204B	545-5228	Physiology of flowering and postharvest care of floricultural crops	susanh@umext.umass.edu
Hazen, Sam	Biology Morrill 3 - 409A	545-4546	Regulatory networks and natural variation in plant cell wall biosynthesis	hazen@bio.umass.edu Hazen Lab homepage
Hepler, Peter (emeritus)	Biology Morrill 3 - 120	545-2083	Cell division and pollen tube growth; the role of calcium, pH, and the cytoskeleton	hepler@bio.umass.edu
Hoopes, Martha	Mt. Holyoke College, 214 Clapp Laboratory	538-2210	Spread dynamics, impacts, and lag times in invasion ecology; metacommunity dynamics, particularly for plants and herbivores	mhoopes@mtholyoke.edu
Jung, Geunhwa	PSIS French 206	545-2243	Molecular genetics and breeding of disease resistance in grasses and population genetics of plant pathogenic fungi	jung@psis.umass.edu
Mangan, Frank	PSIS Bowditch	545-1178	Vegetable production with an emphasis on soil fertility and ethnic crops	fmangan@umext.umass.edu
Manning, William	PSIS Fernald 207B	545-2289 545-2837	Assessing air pollution effects on plant growth and reproduction, bioindicators, plant growth in urban environments.	wmanning@microbio.umass.edu
Miller, Jill	Amherst College, Life Sci 224	542-2168	Ecology and evolution of plant sexual systems, floral evolution, incompatibility systems, phenotypic plasticity	jsmiller@amherst.edu
Normanly, Jennifer	Biochem. LGRT-B 1022	545-3422 545-3423	Metabolic regulation and engineering	normanly@biochem.umass.edu
Parkash, Om	PSIS 202 French Hall	545-0062	Phytoremediation of heavy metals by genetically engineered plants	parkash@psis.umass.edu
Roberts, Susan	Chem.Eng Goessman	545-1660	Optimization of secondary metabolite accumulation in plant cell tissue cultures	sroberts@ecs.umass.edu Roberts Group Lab Page
Schnell, Danny	Biochem. LGRT-B 1020	545-4024	Intracellular protein targeting and chloroplast biogenesis	dschnell@biochem.umass.edu
Searcy, Karen	Biology Morrill 3 - 401B	545-2775	Herbarium curator; taxonomy and plant ecology	ksearcy@bio.umass.edu Herbarium
Shetty, Kalidas	Food Sci. Chenowith - 340	545-1022	Plant and environmental biotechnology, plant secondary metabolism, tissue culture	kalidas@foodsci.umass.edu
Walker, Elsbeth	Biology Morrill 3 - 311. Director, PB Program	545-0861 545-9622	Molecular genetic approaches to studying mechanisms of metal ion homeostasis in plants	ewalker@bio.umass.edu Walker Lab homepage
Wetzel, Carolyn	Smith College, 214 Sabin Reed	585-3687	Plant chloroplast development and function; plant cell development; plant physiology	cwetzel@email.smith.edu
Wick, Robert	PSIS Fernald – 111	545-1045	Bacterial and fungal diseases of vegetable and greenhouse crops, nematode diseases of turf, plant disease diagnostics	rwick@pltpath.umass.edu
Winship, Lawrence	CSC 101, Hampshire	559-5387	Regulation of cell wall expansion during oscillatory growth in lily pollen tubes	ljwNS@hampshire.edu

Plant Biology Graduate Program • 217 Morrill Science Ctr. • UMass Amherst • 611 N. Pleasant St.• Amherst, MA 01003-9297 • Ph: 413.577.3217 • Fax: 413.545.3243