Welcome to those who have joined our faculty ranks in recent months:
Shweta Singh, Assistant Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering. Shweta earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology in Varanasi, India, her master’s in applied statistics and a doctorate in chemical engineering, both from The Ohio State University. She spent a year as a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow with the Western Ecology Division of the US-EPA, where she focused on nitrogen flow modeling for identifying economic-ecological trade-offs. She spent another year as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto working on urban sustainability and biodiversity loss. Her research is focused on developing methodologies for coupled natural human (CNH) systems to computationally analyze these interactions and provide insights into sustainability challenges. She particularly studies interaction of industrial/urban systems with ecological systems. On a broader scale, her research program is providing a pathway to develop fundamental theories for design of sustainable CNH systems.
Fred Whitford, Clinical Engagement Professor, Botany and Plant Pathology. Fred received his bachelor’s degree in wildlife management from Louisiana Tech and his master’s and doctoral degrees in entomology from Iowa State University. He has served as the coordinator of the Purdue Pesticide Program since 1991. He is the author of The Grand Old Man of Purdue University and Indiana Agriculture: A Biography of William Carroll Latta; The Queen of American Agriculture: A Biography of Virginia Claypool Meredith; and For The Good of the Farmer: A Biography of John Harrison Skinner, Dean of Purdue Agriculture, as well as two books on pesticide management. He has authored more than 300 publications and has given more than 4,600 presentations throughout Indiana and the United States. He has received numerous awards in recognition of his significant contributions to Extension outreach efforts, including the Frederick L. Hovde Award of Excellence in Educational Service to Rural People of Indiana, the Outstanding Extension Faculty/Specialist Award from Purdue Extension, and an Excellence in Extension Award from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. Fred was also recently named an Honorary Master Farmer by Indiana Prairie Farmer and the Purdue College of Agriculture.
Gyeong Mee Yoon, Assistant Professor, Botany and Plant Pathology. Gyeong Mee earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biochemistry from Gyeongsang National University in South Korea, and received a doctorate in botany (specialization in plant biochemistry and molecular biology) from Washington State University (WSU). After a short postdoctoral experience at WSU, she moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and worked as a postdoctoral fellow for seven years, focusing on studying the gaseous plant hormone ethylene. Her research interest lies in understanding the molecular mechanism of the key steps in ethylene biosynthesis and signaling pathway using interdisciplinary approaches, including molecular biology, cell biology, genetics and biochemistry. The ultimate goal of her work is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms regulating ethylene biosynthesis and its signaling cascade using the dicot Arabidopsis and the monocot rice. This research leads to an understanding of how plants adapt to respond to a variety of developmental and environmental cues. She believes that achieving a thorough understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling ethylene functions will likely provide novel tools with which to efficiently engineer crops with enhanced resistance to a variety of stresses, which will ultimately enhance the sustainability and productivity of crops.