Ohio University offers one of the premier undergraduate and graduate programs in plant biology, built upon the state, national and international stature of our faculty.
Research is a vital part of our academic mission and is not mutually exclusive of teaching. Instead, research and teaching are complementary, synergistic activities, immersing faculty and students in both learning and discovery. Our faculty have obtained and continue to seek substantial grant funding to support their research programs. They engage both undergraduate and graduate students in their research programs, as evidenced by the numerous co-authored papers and presentations at regional, national, and international scientific meetings and conferences.
Our faculty are active in service to the university, college and their own disciplines. As an example, more than half of our faculty serve as editors or associate editors for academic journals. Additionally, many of our faculty are engaged in outreach at the local, regional and national levels to educate and inform K-12 students, teachers and the public about plants and their importance to society and the environment.
Research Areas We Focus On
Environmental & Plant Biology Departmental faculty cover a broad range of expertise and participate in one or more of currently four focus groups.
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Ecology: From Forest Biology to Applied ManagementEnvironmental & Plant Biology faculty are actively researching various aspects of forest biology, ranging from basic ecological processes to applied management concerns.
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Functional GenomicsThe plant cell wall biotechnology group studies the structure and function of plant cell wall components in hopes of exploiting this knowledge for the production of valuable biological products.
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Systematics & EvolutionResearchers employ independent sources of data to infer phylogenetic relationships and to use the phylogeny as a framework to study character evolution and biogeography.
Special Research Facilities
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Ridges Land Lab
The Ridges Land Lab is a topographically and biologically diverse natural area for instruction and research in field biology, environmental geography, and ecosystem ecology.
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OHIO Student Farm and West State Street Research Site
The OHIO Student Farm features student gardens, a tunnel for year-round growing, and field plots. The Research Site on West State Street is administered by the Environmental & Plant Biology Department.
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Ohio University Greenhouse
The greenhouse is both an instructional garden as well as a research facility, with collections that demonstrate taxonomic diversity including economically important plants, succulents, and epiphytes.
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Floyd Bartley Herbarium
The Floyd Bartley Herbarium is the largest holding of vascular plant specimens from Appalachian Ohio. It is particularly rich in specimens from southern and southeastern Ohio.