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Faculty

Faculty, Lecturers and Post Doctoral Associates

Our faculty members make up the Instructional Areas that include Plant Biology & Biotechnology, Sustainable Agricultural Production & Technology, as well as Landscape Architecture & Landscape Management. 

FACULTY

Please click on the faculty names below for more information. Names are listed alphabetically

Faculty Member Contact Information Research Focus
Carol Allen

 

Carol Allen

Agent Associate in Food Safety

email: callen12@umd.edu | room: PLS 2125E | Phone: 301.405.7543

  • Optimizing water quality
  • Fruit and vegetable crop production to meet current food safety requirements

 

Dr. Mark Carroll

 

Dr. Mark Carroll

Associate Professor and Director, Environmental Science and Policy Program

email: mcarroll@umd.edu | room: PLS 2132 | Phone: 301.405.1339

 

  • Turfgrass
  • Water Quality
  • Nutrients
  • Pesticides
  • Runoff
  • Organic Lawn Care
Diana Cochran

 

Dr. Diana Cochran

Assistant Clinical Professor

email: cochrand@umd.edu | room: PLS 2133 | Phone: 301.405.4336

  • Commercial crop production
  • Crop diversification
  • Relationship between plants and environmental variables
  • Sustainable in-season crop management practices
DR. Gary Coleman

Dr. Gary Coleman

Associate Professor

email: gcoleman@umd.edu | room: PLS 6142 | Phone: 301.405.4371

  • Tree growth and development
  • Nitrogen Storage
  • Bud Dormancy
  • Plant Adaptation
  • Nitrogen-use efficiency

Dr. James Culver

Dr. James Culver

Professor

email: jculver@umd.edu | room: PLS 6139 | phone: 301.405.2912

  • Virology
  • Nanotechnology

PLSC399 opportunities may be available during the Fall and Spring semesters. Please email for more information.

Christopher Ellis

Dr. Christopher Ellis

Professor

email: cdellis@umd.edu | room: PLS 2144 | phone: 301.405.7782

  • Planning and design for sustainable land development
  • Landscape ecology & environmental perception
  • Information technology for landscape planning and design
  • Geographic modeling and analysis of built and natural systems
Dr. John Erwin

 

Dr. John Erwin

Professor and Chair

email: jerwin@umd.edu | room: PLS 2104 | phone: 301.405.4356

  • Environmental control of plant growth in greenhouses and controlled environment agriculture
  • Identifying ways to maximize flowering, photosynthesis and yield using different
    lighting and temperature strategies
  • Manipulating the environment in controlled environment systems to maximize
    edible crop nutritional value.
  • Identifying new production strategies to reduce chemical use, environmental input and labor costs.
  • Identifying strategies to facilitate heat and drought tolerant crops to improve plant
    resilience in a changing climate.
  • Identifying new ornamental crops that are heat and drought tolerant.
Kate Everts

 

Dr. Kathryne Everts

Professor & Director- Wye Research Center and the Harry R. Hughes Center for AgroEcology

email: keverts@umd.edu | phone: 410.827.8056

  • Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum
  • Sclerotinia sclerotiorum
  • Sustainable management of soilborne diseases
  • Vegetable disease forecasting for reducing fungicide use
  • Epidemiology of vegetable diseases
 Dr. Macarena Farcuh

 

Dr. Macarena Farcuh

Assistant Professor

email: mfarcuh@umd.edu | room:PLS 2116 phone:301.405.1323

  • Fruit quality
  • Fruit ripening
  • Postharvest physiology
  • Fruit biochemistry and molecular biology
  • Fruit safety
  • Fruit hormonal balance

PLSC399 opportunities may be available during the Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters. Please email the semester prior for more information.

Angela Ferreli 

 

Dr. Angela Ferelli

Agent Associate

email: angfer@umd.edu | room: PLS 2126 | phone: 302.353.7159

 

  • Food safety of Fresh Produce 
  • Foodborne pathogen ecology in agricultural environments 
  • Agricultural water quality 
  • Food Safety Modernization Act Educator

 

Dr. Nicole Fiorellino

Dr. Nicole Fiorellino

Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist

email: nfiorell@umd.edu | room: PLS 2124 | phone: 301.405.6241

  • Adaptive nitrogen management
  • Alternative crops
  • Long-term phytoremediation of soils with high phosphorus concentrations
Kelly Fleming

Kelly Fleming

Assistant Clinical Professor

email: kflemin2@umd.edu | room: PLS 2132 | phone: 301.405.4335

 
Dr. Mengjun Hu

Dr. Mengjun Hu

Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist

email: mjhu@umd.edu | room: PLS 2106 | phone: 301.405.5586

  • Plant Pathology
  • Grape and Small Fruit Disease
  • Fungicide Resistance and Its Mechanisms
Byoung-Suk Kweon

 

Dr. Byoung-Suk Kweon, PLA

Professor

email: kweonb@umd.edu | room:  PLS 2140 | phone: 301.405.4341

  • Environmental behavior
  • Environment and health 
  • School and Children's Environment
  • Landscape Performance
  • Urban Agriculture
John Lea-Cox

 

Dr. John Lea-Cox

Professor and Extension Specialist

email: jlc@umd.edu | room: PLS 2120 | phone: 301.405.4323

Curriculum Vitae

  • Recycling of water
  • Green Roof Systems
  • Wireless sensor networks for resource management
  • Water-borne pathogen management

PLSC399 opportunities may be available during the Fall and Spring semesters. Please email a proposal discussion at least a month prior to the semester.

Dr. Shirley Micallef

Dr.Shirley Micallef

Professor, PLSC Graduate Admissions Chair

email: smicall@umd.edu |room: PLS 2126 

phone: 301.405.4369

  • Food safety of fresh produce
  • Rhizosphere and phyllosphere bacterial interactions
  • Microbial ecology
  • Plant exudate biology
  • Environmental detection of human pathogens

PLSC399 opportunities may be available during the Fall and Spring semesters. Please email the semester prior for more information.

Dr. David Myers

Dr. David Myers

Associate Professor, LARC Director & MLA Program Chair

email: dnmyers@umd.edu | room:PLS 2146 |phone: 301.405.4350

  • Green Infrastructure
  • Ecological Design
  • Greenway design and planning
  • Residential environments
  • Conservation design and planning
Dr. Maile Neel

Dr. Maile Neel

Professor

email: mneel@umd.edu | room: PLS 6117 |phone: 301.405.9780

  • Habitat Fragmentation and the Spatial Distribution of Biological Diversity
  • Endangered Species Recovery and Conservation
Dr. Bill Phillips

 

Dr. Bill Phillips

Assistant Clinical Professor

email: billii@umd.edu | room: PLS 2131 | phone: 301.405.1061

 

  • interactions between agronomic crop plants and weeds
Yiping Qi

Dr. Yiping Qi

Professor

email: yiping@umd.edu | room: PLS 5121 | phone: 301-405-7682

  • Plant genome engineering
  • Plant innate immunity
  • Plant genome engineering
  • CRISPR-Cas Systems
Dr. Karen Rane

Dr. Karen Rane

Director, Maryland Plant Diagnostic Lab

email:rane@umd.edu | room: PLS 3134  | phone: 301.405.1611

  • Plant Disease Diagnostics - all crops
  • National Plant Diagnostic Network
  • Diseases of woody and herbaceous ornamentals
  • Plant Diagnostic Laboratory

Nidhi Rawat

 

Dr. Nidhi Rawat

Associate Professor, PLSC Director

email: nidhirwt@umd.edu | room: PLS 2114 | phone: 301.405.9744

  • Gene discovery for resistance to fungal pathogens
  • Susceptibility mechanisms of plants to pathogen infection
  • Mechanistic investigation of molecular interaction between plants and fungal pathogens
  • Developing solutions to fungal diseases of small grain crops including wheat and barley
Daniel Rodriguez Leal

Dr. Daniel Rodriguez Leal

Assistant Professor

email: danielrl@umd.edu | room: PLS 6123 | phone: 301.405.0920

  • Plant Developmental Genetics
  • Genome Editing
  • Trait Development in Biotech
  • Phylogenetics and Evolution

Deni Ruggeri

Dr. Deni Ruggeri

Associate Professor, BLA Program Chair

email: druggeri@umd.edu | room: PLS 2136 | phone: 301.405.0229

 

  • Community participation, citizen engagement and co-creation

  • PAR processes in community and landscape development

  • Landscape Democracy and environmental justice

  • Place identity, and attachment

  • Livability in Urban Design

  • Engaged Scholarship and Pedagogy.

Dr. Naomi Sachs

Dr. Naomi Sachs

Assistant Professor

email: nsachs@umd.edu | room: PLS 2134 | phone: 301.405.1602

  • Application of the Healthcare Garden Evaluation Toolkit (H-GET) in healthcare and beyond
  • Design for Mental and Behavioral Health Environments
  • Correlations between Urban Greenspace and Violent Crime
  • Positive Nature Theory
Fereshteh Shahoveisi

Dr. Fereshteh Shahoveisi

Assistant Professor

email: fsh@umd.edu | room: PLS 2110 | phone: 301.405.4355

  • Turfgrass Pathology
Colby Silvert

Dr. Colby Silvert

Assistant Professor

email: csilvert@umd.edu | room: PLS 2131 | phone: 301.405.4356

  • Extension education
  • Evaluation and program planning
  • Planned change approaches
  • Andragogy
  • International agricultural development
  • Specialty crop and small-scale farming systems
  • Residential landscape conservation
Jack Sullivan

Mr. Jack Sullivan, PLA, FASLA

Associate Professor

email: jack@umd.edu | room: PLS 2142 | phone: 301.405.0106

  • Sustainable Urban Landscapes
  • Healing Landscapes
  • Landscape and Garden History in England and Italy
  • Campus Design
Dr. Joseph Sullivan

Dr. Joseph Sullivan 

Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Programs

email: jsull@umd.edu | room: PLS 2122 | phone: 301-405-1626

  • Environmental Stress
  • UV-B Radiation
  • Global Climate Change
  • Ecosystem Services
  • Plant Physiological Ecology
Vijay Tiwari

 

Dr. Vijay Tiwari

Assistant Professor

email: vktiwari@umd.edu | room: PLS 2125J | phone: 301.405.1730

  • Genetics and genomics of small grain crops

PLSC399 opportunities may be available during the Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters. Please email for more information. Interview process required before acceptance in the lab and PLSC399.

Dr. Kate Tully

Dr. Katherine Tully

Associate Professor

email:kltully@umd.edu | room: PLS 2108 | phone: 301.405.1469

Curriculum Vitae

  • Effects of sea-level rise and saltwater intrusion on nutrient dynamics in coastal farmlands
  • Cover crops for ecosystem services provisioning
  • Environmental impacts of the African Green Revolution

PLSC399 opportunities may be available during the Fall and Spring semesters. Undergrads must apply and go through an interview process before they are accepted into PLSC399. There is a required discussion group component, which is run by my grad students. 

Dr. Melissa Welsh 

 

Dr. Melissa Leiden Welsh

Assistant Clinical Professor, AGST Director

email: drmwelsh@umd.edu | room: PLS 2130 | Phone: 301.405.6969

  • Agricultural & Extension Education

  • Teacher Preparation/ Mentoring

  • Learner Centered Teaching

  • Agricultural Literacy

  • Motivation 

  • Experiential Learning

Shunyuan Xiao

 

Dr. Shunyuan Xiao

Professor

email: xiao@umd.edu | room: PLS 2102 |phone: 240.314.6480

  • Broad spectrum disease resistance
  • Plant-fungal interaction
  • Powdery mildew pathogenesis
     
     

 

Affiliate & Adjunct Faculty

  Contact Information Research Focus
Dr. Andrew Baldwin

 

Dr. Andrew Baldwin

Affiliate Professor 

email: baldwin@umd.edu | ENST | phone: 301.405.7855

  • coastal and restored wetland ecosystems
  • Plant-microbe interactions in coastal wetlands, effects of plant species on bacterial, archaeal, and mycorrhizal communities
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Benjamin Beale

Affiliate Principal Agent 

email: bbeale@umd.edu | St. Mary's County | phone: 301.475.4481

  • Southern Maryland Cluster
  • Agronomic Crop Production
  • Fruits & Vegetables Crops
  • Beginning Farmer
  • Herbicide Resistant Weed Management
Dr. Bryan Butler

 

Bryan Butler

Affiliate Principal Agent

email: bbutlers@umd.edu | UME- Carroll County | phone: 410.386.2760

  • Tree Fruits
  • Vegetables High Tunnels
  • Small Fruit
  • Hops and Barley
Dr. Caren Chang

 

Dr. Caren Chang

Affiliate Professor

email: carenc@umd.edu | phone: 301.405.1643

ethylene hormone signaling
Priscila Chaverri

Dr. Priscilla Chaverri

Adjunct Associate Professor

email: pchaverr@umd.edu

 
Dr. David Clement

 

Dr. David Clement

Affiliate Principal Agent, Home & Garden Information Center (HGIC)

email: clement@umd.edu | phone: 410.531.558

  • Plant Pathology
  • Ornamental IPM
  • Ornamental Diseases
  • Ornamental Disease Management
Dr. Allen Davis

 

Allen Davis

Affiliate Professor

email: apdavis@umd.edu | CEE | phone: 301.405.1958

 
Dr. Jose Feijo

 

Jose Feijo 

Affiliate Professor

email: jfeijo@umd.edu | CMNS | phone: 301.405.4906

 
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James Lewis

 Affiliate Senior Agent

email: jlewis2@umd.edu | UME-Caroline County | phone: 410.479.4030

  • Agronomy
  • Caroline County
  • Mid-Shore Cluster
Dr. Zhongchi Liu

 

Dr. Zhongchi Liu

Affiliate Professor

email: zliu@umd.edu | phone: 301.405.1586

Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics
Ronald Myers

 

Ronald Myers

Affiliate Principal Agent 

email: myersrd@umd.edu | Anne Arundel County | phone: 410.222.3906 

  • Fruits & Vegetables Crops
  • Agronomy Field Crops
  • Weed Science
  • Pesticide Use & Safety
  • No-Tillage Technology
  • Pasture & Hay Production

     

Mitch Pavao-Zuckerman

 

Mitch Pavao-Zuckerman

Affiliate Assistant Professor 

email: mpzucker@umd.edu | ENST | phone: 301.405.1178

  • Urban ecosystems, green infrastructure function, and ecosystem services
  • Social-ecological systems, ecosystem services, and ecological resilience
Dr. Wendy Peer

 

Dr. Wendy Peer

Affiliate Associate Professor

email: wapeer@umd.edu | ENST | phone: 301.405.5491

  • Auxin homeostasis
  • Flavonoid function
  • Plant growth regulators/invasive species
  • Metal-center proteins
Dr. Andrew Ristvey

 

Dr. Andrew Ristvey

Affiliate Senior Agent 

email: aristvey@umd.edu | Wye Research Center | phone: 410.827.8056 x 113

  • Commercial Horticulture
  • Alternative Specialty Crops
  • Green Roof
  • Aronia
  • Wye REC
Dr. David Tilley

 

Dr. David Tilley

Affiliate Associate Professor 

email: dtilley@umd.edu | ENST | phone: 301.405.1306

  • Ecological Design & Engineering
  • Green Building Ecology & Design
  • Energy Analysis of Alternatives
  • Energy and Environmental Accounting
  • Wetland Radiometry & Health
Kurt Vollmer

Dr. Kurt Vollmer

Agent

email: kvollmer@umd.edu | Wye Research and Education Center | phone: 410-827-8056

  • Weed Management

 

Emeritus

  Contact Information Research Focus
flowers

Dr. John Bouwkamp

Associate Professor Emeritus

email: jbouwkam@umd.edu

  • Vegetables
Dr. steven cohan

 

Dr. Steven Cohan

Professor Emeritus

email: scohan@umd.edu

  • Landscape Management 
  • Green Roof Stormwater Mitigation
Dr. Jose Costa

 

Dr. Jose Costa

Professor Emeritus 

email: costaj@umd.edu

  • Breeding and genetics of wheat and barley
  • utilization of molecular markers in plant breeding
  • Breeding of wheat and barley with improved disease resistance, high grain yield and quality
Dr. Peter Dernoeden

 

Dr. Peter H Dernoeden

Professor Emeritus

email: pd@umd.edu | phone: 301.405.1337

  • Turfgrass Management
  • Turfgrass IPM
photo of corn

 

Dr. Thomas Fretz

Dean Emeritus

email:tfretz@umd.edu

 
photo of flowers

 

Dr. Donald Scott Glenn

Associate Professor Emeritus

email: sglenn@umd.edu

 
roses

 

Dr. Arvydas Grybauskas

Associate Professor Emeritus

email: arvydas@umd.edu

 
William Kenworthy

 

Dr. William Kenworthy

Professor Emeritus

email: wkenwort@umd.edu

  • Soybean genetics and breeding
landscape and sunset

 

Dr. Marla McIntosh

Professor Emeritus

email: mmcintos@umd.edu

 
Angus Murphy

Dr. Angus Murphy

Professor Emeritus

email: asmurphy@umd.edu 

  • Auxin Transport
  • ABC Transporter
  • Phototropism
  • Membrane nanodomains
  • Hormone/Herbicide crosstalk
tobacco

 

Dr. Timothy J Ng

Professor Emeritus

email: binkley@umd.edu

 
Dennis Nola

Mr. Dennis Nola, PLA, ASLA

Instructor

email: dnola@umd.edu | room: PLS 2138 | phone: 301.405.0066

  • Urban agriculture and social justice of equitable urban revilatization
crops

 

Dr. Ronald Ritter

Professor Emeritus

email: rlritter@umd.edu

 
watermelon

 

Dr. Lester Vough

Associate Professor Emeritus

email: vough@umd.edu

 
Dr. Chris Walsh portrait 

 

Dr. Christopher Walsh

Professor Emeritus

email: cswalsh@umd.edu | room: PLS 2118 | phone: 301.405.4351; 240.461.5149

  • Apple Maturity Assessments
  • Sustainable Fruit Production
  • Maryland Tree Architecture Project
  • Food Safety of fresh fruits and vegetables
hay

 

Dr. Robert Wiley

Professor Emeritus

email: rwiley@umd.edu

 

LECTURER

Lecturer  Contact Information Research Focus
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Ann Anderson 

Lecturer with 20+ years of landscape architectural office practice specializing in graphic communication and planting design
email: aanders8@umd.edu 

  • Planting Design
  • Design Theory
Phillip Cho

 

Phillip Cho

Lecturer & University Landscape Architect, Project Manager at UMBC

email: pscho@umd.edu

  • Project Management
  • Landscape Construction
  • Campus Planning and Design
  • Senior/ Low-income Housing
Diana Cortez

 

Diana Cortez

Academic Advisor and Lecturer

email:dcortez@umd.edu | room: PLS 2139 | Phone: 301.405.4359 

  • Academic Advisor
  • PLSC251: Financial Applications for the Green Industry
Christine Machado

Christine Machado

Lecturer (LARC120)

email: cmach15@umd.edu

  • Environment and health
  • Symbiotic relationship between landscape & architecture
  • Primary based research
flowers

 

Sherry Russell

Lecturer

email: slr2020@umd.edu

 

 

  • Landscape performance
  • Economic effects of community managed open spaces and parks
  • Practice business strategy
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Jessica Sanders

Lecturer (PLSC471) 

email: sandersj@umd.edu

 

 
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Jeff Server, ASLA, LEED AP BD +C

Lecturer & Project Manager/Project Architect at Prism Design Collective
email: jserverj@gmail.com

  • Digital/analog workflows incorporating technology
  • Interdisciplinary design and practice
  • Urban design, with an emphasis on waste landscapes and sustainability
  • Land art and Earthworks
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Dan Straub, ASLA, APA, PLA, LEED AP

Lecturer (LARC321); Landscape Architect - DFB & PUSH Urban Design Studio
email: dstraub@umd.edu

  • Construction Documentation & Implementation
  • Urban Streetscapes & Tree Planting
  • Green Infrastructure
  • Urban Planning & Urban Design
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James Westwater, Ph.D.

Lecturer (LARC489R,  LARC620, LARC689C) and visual artist

email: jamesw@umd.edu

  • Art + design
  • Land art
  • Conceptual art
  • Creative spaces
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Caren Yglesias, Ph.D., AIA, Affil. ASLA

Lecturer (LARC 263); Architect; author of the recent book, Desert Gardens of Steve Martino (Monacelli, 2018)
email: caren@umd.edu

  • History and theory of landscape architecture
  • Materials and methods of construction
  • Sustainable design

 

Photo of Kayla Griffith

Kayla Griffith, MS, CCA 

Lecturer (PLSC112, PLSC113) 

email: kmgriffi@umd.edu

  • Agriculture education
  • Farm stress
  • Application of integrated agronomic systems

 

Post Doctoral

  Contact Information Research Focus
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Yanhao Cheng

Post-Doctoral Associate

email: chy2019@g.umd.edu

 
Scott Cosseboom

Scott David Cosseboom

Post-Doctoral Associate

email: scossebo@g.umd.edu

 
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Hong Fang

Post-Doctoral Associate

email: hfang88@g.umd.edu

 
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Megha Gupta

Post-Doctoral Associate

email: mgupta38@g.umd.edu

 
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Seyedali Hosseinirad

Post-Doctoral Associate

email: hrad@g.umd.edu

 

 
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Zhuangji Wang

Post-doctoral Scholar

email:  | phone: 301.405.1469

 
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Blaise Jumbam

Post-doctoral Scholar

email: jblaise@g.umd.edu

 
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Gen Li

Post-Doctoral Associate

email: gli2013@g.umd.edu

 
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Weifeng Luo

Post-Doctoral Associate

email: luowf@g.umd.edu

 
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Preeti Patel

Post-Doctoral Associate

email: ppatel58@g.umd.edu

 
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Gautam Saripalli

Post-Doctoral Associate

email: guatams@g.umd.edu

 

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Parva Kumar Sharma

Post-Doctoral Associate

email: pksharma@g.umd.edu

 

 
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Simon Sretenovic

Post-doctoral Scholar

email: simonsre@g.umd.edu

 
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Aytug Tuncel

Post-doctoral Scholar

email: atuncel@g.umd.edu

 
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Xiaoyu Wang

Post-Doctoral Associate

email: xwang147@g.umd.edu