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New Agriculture Faculty

 

Grzegorz Buczkowski, research assistant professor, Entomology.  Grzegorz came to Purdue in December 2006.  He earned his doctorate from North Carolina State University in 2003, followed by a post-doctoral year at Ohio State University.  He specializes in urban entomology with a focus on social insects.

 

Indrajeet Chaubey, associate professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering.  Indrajeet came to Purdue from the University Arkansas, Fayetteville.  He earned his doctorate in biosystems engineering from Oklahoma State University.  He specializes in ecohydrology and ecological engineering.

 

 

 

 

Scott Downey, assistant professor, Agricultural Economics.  Scott earned his doctorate  from Purdue and spent 15 years in the financial services industry before joining the faculty this year.  He is also associate director of the Center for Food and Agricultural Business, where he has directed and instructed programs over the last seven years.  His research interests include key account management and factors affecting the attitudes of large dairy owners. 

 

 

 

Reuben Goforth, assistant professor, Forestry and Natural Resources.  Reuben comes to Purdue from the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University, where he was also Aquatic Ecology Program Leader of the Michigan Natural Features Inventory.  His research interests are in aquatic ecology; fish and insect species and communities in streams; fish, aquatic insects, unionid clams, and zooplankton in large rivers, inland lakes, and Great Lakes nearshore areas.  He also studies ecological mechanisms that support and sustain native biodiversity and identifying threats to ecological functions, species persistence, and community ecology.

 

Kee-Hong Kim, assistant professor, Food Science.  Kee-Hong comes to Purdue from the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he was an assistant professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Clinical Nutrition in the Department of Medicine, Human and Molecular Genetics Center. His research interests are in the areas of  bioactive food components and obesity biology; transcriptional and signaling regulation of differentiation program and inflammatory response of adipocytes.

 

 

 

Neil Knobloch, assistant professor, Youth Development and Agricultural Education.  Neil was an assistant professor of agricultural education at the University of Illinois before coming to Purdue this fall.  He earned his doctorate in agricultural education in 2002 from Ohio State University.  Neil specializes in informal/non-formal life science education.

 

 

 

 

Roberto Lopez, assistant professor, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture.  Roberto earned his doctorate from Michigan State University earlier this year.  He specializes in floriculture extension, research and teaching.  His research focuses on  how environmental stresses affect plant growth, development, quality and subsequent crop performance, and he will teach HORT 415 (Floriculture Crops).  

 

Jianxin Ma, assistant professor, Agronomy. Jianxin first joined the Agronomy department in 2006 as a research assistant professor.  His research objectives are to develop and apply genetics and genomics tools and approaches to translate basic discoveries to soybean breeders and to facilitate the development and application of genomics-assisted breeding for soybean improvement. Jianxin earned his doctorate in plant genetics and breeding from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. 

 

Tamilee Dawn Nennich will join the Animal Sciences department in October as an assistant professor.  She will come from Texas A&M University, where has she served as an assistant professor and Extension dairy specialist.  Her area of specialization at Purdue will be dairy cattle nutrient management. 

 

Michael Saunders, assistant professor, Forestry and Natural Resources.  Michael comes to Purdue from the University of Maine, where he was a forest biometrician in the cooperative forestry research unit.  His research interests are in the are in disturbance-based silviculture/ecological forestry; growth and yield modeling; stand dynamics in hardwood forests; incorporating variability into silvicultural prescriptions; spatial structure of forests.

 

Lori Unruh Snyder, assistant professor, Agronomy.  Lori teaches and does research in crop science.  She was previously a lecturer and undergraduate coordinator for plant sciences at the University of Florida.  Lori earned her doctorate in crop science from North State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

 

Mitch Tuinstra, professor, Agronomy.  Mitch will join the Agronomy department in October, coming from Kansas State University.  He is internationally recognized for his research in crop breeding and his research focuses on identifying and developing genetic technologies that provide solutions to important problems in agriculture.  Mitch is a Purdue alum, having earned his doctorate here in plant breeding and genetics.    

 

Luc Valentin joined the Agricultural Economics department in June as an assistant professor of production economics/farm management economics.  He recently completed his Ph.D. in agricultural economics at Kansas State University.  Luc’s research experience has covered the economic impacts of BSE on the beef industry, the effects of best management practices on profitability and the consequences of policies aimed at reducing Atrazine pollution. He ntends to focus on several more farm management questions, as well as overall efficiency improvement and the use of new data collection technologies in agriculture.

 

 

Changlu Wang joined the Entomology department in January as a research assistant professor.  He earned his doctorate from West Virginia University and had been manager of sponsored product research at the Center for Urban and Industrial Pest Management.  Changlu’s research interests are management of urban pests (cockroaches, ants, termites, bedbugs, etc.), ecology of ants, termites, and cockroaches, and invasive red fire ants in China.

 

 

H. Holly Wang, associate professor, Agricultural Economics. Holly received her Ph.D. and masters degrees from Michigan State University.  She worked at Washington State University for the past ten years as an assistant and associate professor.  She specializes in agricultural risks, derivative markets and crop insurance. Holly became interested in international issues recently, especially agricultural risks and finance in China.  She is the current Vice Chair of CWAE, AAEA, and President Elect of Chinese Economists Society, a U.S.-based organization focusing on the research of Chinese economic issues. 

 

 

Genyi Zhang, assistant research professor, Food Science.  Genyi comes to Purdue from Southern Yangtze University in Wuxi, China, where he was assistant professor of food science and technology.  Genyi works in carbohydrate nutrition, slowly digestible starch and physiological responses, and nanotechnology to deliver functional elements.