Two new scientists are joining the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.
Ru Zhang and Malia Gehan will add their expertise to plant genomics and phenomics in order to strengthen the Danforth Center’s focus on agricultural productivity and sustainability.
“They both bring new technologies, approaches and expertise that fit well with the priorities of the Center,” James Carrington, president of the Danforth Center, said in a release.
Gehan will focus on improving temperature stress tolerance of plants, including cereals and underdeveloped crops such as quinoa. She also will develop new technologies in phenotyping.
Zhang will focus on the mechanisms of photosynthesis in unicellular and multicellular plants. She also has expertise in spectroscopic techniques, algal genomics and organelle evolution.
“The understanding of photosynthesis in these organisms could help make the process more efficient and robust under challenging environmental conditions,” Zhang said in a release, “which in turn can improve food and biomass production.”
The Danforth Center is a not-for-profit research institute that specializes in plant science. It was founded in 1998.
