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Investigators

Jeff Maughan

July 15, 2019 08:01 AM
PWS, Professor
Phone: (801) 422-8698
Room: 5144 LSB

Jeff received a Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He was co-advised by Drs. G.R. Buss and M.A. Saghai Maroof in the Department of Crop and Soil Science. His dissertation was entitled “Microsatellite polymorphism, orthologous evolution and molecular marker analysis of seed quality traits in soybean (Glycine max L. Merr).  Jeff worked for five years at the Monsanto Company as a Project Lead for Technology Development and then as Director of their High Throughput Genotyping Laboratory in Ankeny, IA. While at Monsanto he was awarded an Over and Beyond Award - Outstanding Project Implementation (2001). He moved to BYU in 2002 as an Associate Professor and was promoted to full Professor of Molecular Genetics in 2011. He has been awarded with the Thomas L. Martin Professorship (2014), College of Life Sciences, Outstanding Teaching Award (2011), and the John A. Widtsoe University Fellowship (2008) in recognition of research that enhances the quality of life and contributes to the solution of pressing world problem. He currently serves on the editorial board for the Botanical Society of America’s Applications in Plant Sciences. He has an established research program with funding from numerous sources including USDA, NSF, McKnight Foundation as well as several private corporations and independent donors. He has published > 60 refereed journal articles and book chapters and serves as an International Atomic energy Agency (IAEA) missions’ expert for food, agriculture and biotechnology.

Rick Jellen

July 15, 2019 08:12 AM
PWS, Professor
Associate Dean
Phone: 801-422-7279
Room: 5009 LSB

Rick Jellen received his doctorate in plant breeding from the University of Minnesota in 1992 in the lab of Regents Professor Ronald L. Phillips, co-advised by Howard W. Rines of the USDA-ARS.  His thesis project involved chromosome identification and mapping of molecular markers in oat (Avena sativa) using chromosome-deficient lines.  He was then appointed as a Research Geneticist (Postdoctoral) with the USDA-ARS in the lab of Dr. Stan Cox and with Kansas State University’s Department of Plant Pathology in the lab of Bikram S. Gill doing wheat and oat genetics.  In 1996 he was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Agronomy & Horticulture (now Plant & Wildlife Sciences) where he has pursued research on improvement of oats and quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) and studies genetic relationships of these crops with their wild relatives.  His program has been funded by a variety of public, foundation, and industry sources.  He has co-authored >80 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters and serves as Co-Chair of the American Oat Workers and as an associate editor of the journal PLoS ONE, with an honorary appointment to the Scientific Board of the International Quinoa Center in Bolivia.  He has also directed efforts to produce a seed bank consisting of over 1200 wild accessions of Chenopodium to support quinoa genomics research at BYU.  He currently serves as Associate Dean for Research & Facilities in the College of Life Sciences.

David Jarvis

July 15, 2019 08:02 AM
PWS, Assistant Professor
Phone: 801-422-3093
Room: 5133 LSB

I am an Assistant Professor in the Plant and Wildlife Sciences department at Brigham Young University (BYU). I received my B.S. and M.S. degrees from BYU and my Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. Prior to coming to BYU in 2017, I was a post-doctoral fellow at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). I have experience in molecular biology, genetics, and genomics.