Plant Biology Fall 2026 Seminars

In the fall and spring semesters PB seminars are generally held in Morrill Science Center 2 South, Room 222, Thursdays at 4pm, unless otherwise noted. For seminars noted as remote, the Zoom link will be emailed to the Plant Biology list-serv.

Refreshments will be served beginning at 3:50pm.

Rotation Talks

September 10

Presenter: Sam Hazen, Somber Rao, Durre Muhammad, Matt Stata, Avilash Singh, Tadasu Nozaki, Rachel Hestrin, Alice Cheung
Institution: UMass Amherst
Location: Morrill Science Center 2 South, Room 222
Host: NA

I am small, I contain multitudes: a guided tour of the enigmatic evolutionary structure of the plant and human pathogenic fungus Fusarium oxysporum

September 25

Presenter: David Geiser
Institution: Penn State University
Location: Morrill Science Center 2 South, Room 222
Host: Ben Normark

This seminar is shared with the OEB seminar on a Friday schedule at 3:00 pm

Artificial gene activation in plants and supernumerary chromosomes of fungal pathogens causig blast diseases

October 8

Presenter: Sanzhen Liu
Institution: Kansas State University
Location: Morrill Science Center 2 South, Room 222
Host: Li-Jun Ma

The mechanism of age-dependent flowering in arabidopsis

October 15

Presenter: Scott Poething
Institution: University of Pennsylvania
Location: Morrill Science Center 2 South, Room 222
Host: Tobias Baskin

Title TBD

October 22

Presenter: Zhiyong Wang
Institution: Carnegie Science
Location: Morrill Science Center 2 South, Room 222
Host: Alice Cheung

Reading Between the Genes: Decoding and Writing Regulatory Language of the Genome

October 29

Presenter: Ronan O'Malley
Institution: University of Chicago
Location: Morrill Science Center 2 South, Room 222
Host: Sam Hazen

Chytrids and the Evolution of Fungal Biology

November 5

Presenter: Edgar Medina Tovar
Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Location: Morrill Science Center 2 South, Room 222
Host: Li-Jun Ma

Evolution and physiological diversity of CAM photosynthesis

November 19

Presenter: Karolina Heyduk
Institution: University of Connecticut
Location: Morrill Science Center 2 South, Room 222
Host: Ana Caicedo

Peeling back layers of plant genome evolution

December 3

Presenter: Kirk Amundson
Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Location: Morrill Science Center 2 South, Room 222
Host: Greg Gregory

Decoding Plant-Environment Interactions: From Environmental Sensing to Crop Performance and Quality

December 10

Presenter: Jianyu Li
Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Location: Morrill Science Center 2 South, Room 222
Host: Li-Jun Ma

Time: 3:00- 4:00 pm

Sign-up for announcements

Interested in attending our seminars! To sign-up for announcements, please click the registration link, and we will review your request.

Registration Request Form

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We invite UMass PB Community members to nominate a speaker.