Joly

Robert Joly, professor of plant physiology, has been appointed head of Purdue’s Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, which he has been leading in an interim capacity since September.

Joly, who studies how plants adapt to the effects of environmental stress, will head a department with research ranging from basic molecular biology to crop improvement to innovations in landscape design. The department, part of the College of Agriculture, offers five majors with 30 faculty, 297 undergraduate students and 39 graduate students.

Joly succeeds Edward Ashworth, who took a position at the University of Maine.

“I am very excited to work with the great faculty, staff and students that make up this department,” Joly says. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to make us even more prominent nationally, to build on our leading programs in horticulture, plant biology, and landscape architecture, and to ensure that our educational programs continue to be among the best in the world.”

Academic Analytics recently ranked the horticulture faculty second in the nation. Academic Analytics ranks thousands of doctoral programs in more than 100 different disciplines based on a “faculty scholarly productivity index” that takes into account the number of book and journal publications, citations of journal articles, awards and honors, and federal grant dollars awarded.

DesignIntelligence, a publication for design professionals, ranked the undergraduate program in landscape architecture second in the nation this year. The program provides a unique practical education component in which each student works one year in the landscape architecture industry before graduation.

“Joly is nationally known as an excellent researcher and teacher,” says Randy Woodson, Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture. “He will be a great leader to a department that is already recognized as one of the best in the country.”

The department also operates the Purdue Master Gardener Program, which provides horticultural education and assistance to volunteers across Indiana, who in turn provide gardening instruction and activities in their local communities.

Joly’s numerous teaching awards include the Charles B. Murphy Award from Purdue, the Outstanding Undergraduate Educator Award from the American Society for Horticultural Science, and the Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He is a founding fellow of the Purdue Teaching Academy.

A member of the Purdue faculty since 1985, Joly earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of New Hampshire and a doctorate in plant physiology from Oregon State University.

Contact Joly at joly@purdue.edu