Spring 2021
January 21, 2021
Dr. Niko Geldner, Professor, Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
“The last step is the hardest – lignin and suberin formation in the cell wall”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
February 4, 2021
Dr. Ian Wallace, Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Nevada, Reno
“Kinases, lipids, and sugars: How do plants regulate cell wall polysaccharide assembly”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
March 4, 2021
Dr. Xue-Rong Zhou, Senior Principal Research Scientist, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia
“Metabolic engineering of lipids: omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids from ocean to field”
To be held via Zoom, 2:00pm – 2:55pm (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
March 18, 2021
Dr. Malia Gehan, Assistant Member, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
“Stress phenomics”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
April 1, 2021
Dr. David Kramer, Hannah Distinguished Professor in Photosynthesis and Bioenergetics, College of Natural Science, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory
“Photosynthesis control”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
April 8, 2021
Dr. Ricard Sole, Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) Research Professor, University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
“Bioengineering the biosphere and other synthetic biology topics”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
April 15, 2021
Professor Ivo Feussner, George August University, Göttingen
“The glycosyltransferase UGT76B1 is critical for plant immunity as it governs the homeostasis of N-hydroxy-pipecolic acid”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
April 29, 2021
Dr. Richard Dixon, Distinguished Research Professor/ Associate Director of the BioDiscovery Institute- Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas
“Engineering plant cell wall polymers for a sustainable bioeconomy”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
May 6, 2021
Dr. Haniyeh Koochak, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Institute of Biological Chemistry, Washington State University
“Factors Involved in Ultrastructural Thylakoid Dynamics”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
May 13, 2021
Dr. Karen Sanguinet, Assistant Professor, Crop and Soil Sciences Department, Washington State University
“Root hairs development and nitrogen sensing”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
Fall 2020
October 8, 2020
Prof. Peter Eastmond, Biochemist, Plant Sciences, Rothamsted Research, UK
“The role of plant lipid metabolism in arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
October 15, 2020
Dr. Narayanan (Sri) Srividya, Research Associate, Institute of Biological Chemistry, Washington State University
“Structure-function relationships of enzymes involved in plant monoterpene biosynthesis – elucidating the determinants of catalytic specificity”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
October 22, 2020
Dr. Marcela Rojas-Pierce, Associate Professor and Associate Department Head, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University
“Dynamics of plant vacuoles in physiology and development”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
October 29, 2020
Dr. Andreas Weber, Professor, Head of the Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Heinrich Heine University
“Evolution of C4 photosynthesis via C3-C4 intermediate stages”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
November 5, 2020
Dr. Lisa Ainsworth, Research Molecular Biologist, USDA-ARS, Adjunct Professor, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois
“C4 grass responses to elevated ozone pollution”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
November 19, 2020
Dr. Claudia Vickers, Director of the CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform
“Synthetic biology flux control tools for metabolic engineering: isoprenoids as a model system”
To be held via Zoom, 2:00pm – 2:55pm (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
December 3, 2020
Dr. John Morgan, Professor, Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, Director of Graduate Studies, Purdue University
“Kinetic modeling of plant phenylpropanoid metabolism”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
December 17, 2020
Dr. Seung Yon (Sue) Rhee, Senior Staff Scientist, Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution for Science
“Metabolism in plant stress”
To be held via Zoom, 9:00am – 9:55am (Zoom link to follow in announcement).
Spring 2020
February 6, 2020
Dr. Kevin Garcia, Assistant Professor, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, North Carolina State University
“The Mycorrhizal Contribution to Plant Potassium Nutrition”
To be held in Biotechnology Life Sciences 402, 2:10pm – 3:00pm
February 12, 2020
Dr. Stanislav Kopriva, Professor, Institute of Botany, University of Cologne, Head of Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS)
“Sulfur nutrition in C4 plants”
To be held in Bryan Hall 305, 12:10pm – 1:00pm
February 24, 2020
Dr. Ray Dixon, Professor, Fellow of the Royal Society, Co-Director, JIC-CAS Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Science, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK
“Hierarchical regulation of nitrogen fixation in bacteria that associate with plants”
To be held in Biotechnology Life Sciences 402, 2:30pm – 3:30pm
CANCELED
March 12, 2020
Dr. Marcela Rojas-Pierce, Associate Professor and Associate Department Head, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University
“Functions and regulation of plant vacuoles in stomata and gravitropism”
To be held in Biotechnology Life Sciences 402, 2:10pm – 3:00pm
CANCELED
April 2, 2020
Dr. David Kramer, Hannah Distinguished Professor in Photosynthesis and Bioenergetics, College of Natural Science, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory
“Title: TBD”
To be held in Biotechnology Life Sciences 402, 2:10pm – 3:00pm
CANCELED
April 16, 2020
Dr. Doug Muench, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary
“PUF RNA-binding proteins: modular RNA recognition and prospects for programmable regulation of target RNAs”
To be held in Biotechnology Life Sciences 402, 2:10pm – 3:00pm