Department of Botany & Plant Sciences

Name: Alejandro (Alex) Cortez Undergraduate Education: University of California, Riverside, Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology minor (2002) Graduate Education: University of California, Riverside, Master of Science in Evolution, Ecology. and Organismal Biology (2009) Hometown: Guadalajara, Mexico and Riverside...

Janet Franklin, a distinguished professor of biogeography in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, has been named a recipient of the 2021 Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award by the North American Chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology. Janet...

Barley is important for more than beer. A UC Riverside geneticist has won $1.7 million to study how one of the world’s staple foods might survive climate change. The National Science Foundation CAREER Award to Daniel Koenig, an assistant professor...

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is pleased to announce its 2021 Fellows. The Society’s fellowship program recognizes the many ways in which its members contribute to ecological research and discovery, communication, education and pedagogy, and management and policy. Fellows...

The plant that encourages kissing at Christmas is in fact a parasite, and new research reveals mistletoe has an unusual feeding strategy. Like other plants, mistletoe is capable of using sunlight to create its own food, a process called photosynthesis...

Ten researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have been included in the 2020 Highly Cited Researchers list compiled by Clarivate Analytics, which was previously part of Thomson Reuters. The list includes the 6,167 most frequently cited researchers in the...

Katayoon "Katie" Dehesh has many distinguished titles: director of UC Riverside’s Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, distinguished professor of molecular biochemistry, member of the German National Academy of Sciences, and now, president-elect of the American Society of Plant Biologists. But...

Following a decade-long effort, scientists have mapped out the genome of an aphid-like pest capable of decimating vineyards. In so doing, they have discovered how it spreads — and potentially how to stop it. The research team’s work on the...

Vanessa Perez, 21, is a Class of 2020 graduate completing a bachelor’s degree in plant biology who developed her love for plants working in her father’s backyard garden as a child. She’s researched plant varieties in the Mojave Desert, co-authored...

Elizabeth Hann, of the Jinkerson Lab, was recently selected as a 2020 Fellow for the Link Foundation Energy. Fellows receive 2 awards of $30,000 in an effort to foster education and innovation in energy production and utilization.