An Assistant Professor in the Department of Soil, Water and Climate, Brandy earned her PhD from the University of California-Berkley and completed a postdoctorate fellowship at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Her research at the University of Minnesota focuses on microbe-mineral interaction and the bio/geochemical cycling of metals in natural and contaminated environments.
Chad Myers, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, joined the BioTechnology Institute in 2013. Chad earned his PhD from the Department of Computer Science at Princeton University in the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. Myers’ research focuses primarily on gene interaction and computational biology. He was named the McKnight Land-Grant Professor in 2011, and was also recently granted the National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award (CAREER). We congratulate Chad Myers on his achievement, and welcome him to the BioTechnology Institute.
BTI member Gary Muehlbauer, was recently named a Distinguished McKnight Professor. This award is granted to outstanding faculty members who have recently made the transition to full professor status. Muehlbauer is head of the Department of Plant Biology, and is also a part of the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics. His research is concentrating on wheat and barley and molecular genetics, as well as integrating genomics resources into barley breeding programs. Highest regards to Gary Muehlbauer.
BTI/Chemical Engineering and Materials Science BTI welcomes Kechun Zhang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Zhang completed his PhD in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology and his postdoctorate fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles. Zhang’s research focuses on the sustainable production of biofuels, chemicals, and biologics through engineered processes including protein evolution, metabolic flux, and the design of artificial metabolic pathways. In 2013 Zhang was the recipient of the 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award and the American Heart Association National Scientist Development Grant Award.