March 8, 2020 at 3:25 pm

Message from the Chair | Let Me Know What You Are Doing!

Environmental & Plant Biology professor Dr. Allan Showalter presenting his research at the MCB retreat.

Environmental & Plant Biology professor Dr. Allan Showalter presenting his research at the Molecular & Cellular Biology retreat.

By Dr. Allan Showalter
Professor & Chair of Environmental & Plant Biology

Greetings PBIO alumni, students, faculty, and staff! It remains my privilege to serve as chair of this outstanding department. This newsletter highlights some of the great things that our faculty, staff, and students are doing. If you are not highlighted in this newsletter, it may be because you have not let me know what remarkable things you are doing. Please email me at showalte@ohio.edu and tell me what you are up to along with your current contact information.

Dr. John Schenk

I want to again take this opportunity to welcome our new tenure-track faculty member to the department, Dr. John Schenk. Dr. Schenk is broadly interested in plant evolution and evolutionary processes and is particularly interested in staminode evolution, Podostemaceae macroevolution, seed evolution, and the evolution of fruit and seed dispersal. His expertise in plant structure and evolution will further strengthen our ability to teach our students and secure research funding from external agencies.

I hope you enjoy reading the newsletter and take the time to reach out to a PBIO faculty member, staff person, or student and drop them an email or note. You can find our faculty directory and our staff directory on the department website. I hope to hear from you soon about the interesting projects you’re working on, and I also ask you to consider providing some financial support to our department, big or small, as we have a number of worthy plant biology giving opportunities available for your consideration. In particular, we have needs for a new, state-of-the-art greenhouse, a new department van for PBIO class field trips, and scholarships, research support, and travel support for our undergraduate and graduate students.