Specialty Crops

Jan. 10, 2018

Dean Volenberg

Grape quality can be quantified using a number of metrics, the same can be said of wine quality. Since wine quality is directly impacted by grape quality, viticultural management practices play an important role in elevating wine quality. Dean Volenberg’s applied research viticulture program examines the impact of canopy management, vine balance, and integrated pest management practices on grape quality. Although his research is often directed at specific industry concerns having long term implications, his Extension program is dynamic and responsive to seasonal industry needs. Dean has an Extension and research appointment in viticulture and winery operations. His appointment is…

Jan. 10, 2018

Andrew Thomas

Andrew Thomas enjoys conducting research on a wide variety of horticultural and agroforestry crops and crop production techniques. His main research interests include the development of overlooked native fruit and nut crops with commercial potential, but he also studies aspects of mainstream horticultural crop production. His research projects at the Southwest Research, Extension and Education Center have included black walnuts, pecans, hickories, persimmons, pawpaws, elderberries, blackberries, grapes, apples, tomatoes, melons, asparagus, culinary and medicinal herbs, wildflowers, prairie restoration, wood biomass quantification and high tunnel and solar-heated greenhouse production. Before coming to the Southwest Research, Extension and Education Center in 1996,…

Jan. 10, 2018

Kelly Nelson

Educational background Ph.D. Crop and Soil Sciences, Michigan State University…

Nov. 14, 2017

Noel R. Aloysius

Noel Aloysius’ research and teaching focus on terrestrial hydrology, watershed biophysical processes and environmental informatics. Noel’s research group investigates how climate and weather, landscapes and land management drive precipitation-runoff processes and fate and transport of pollution at field-, watershed- and continental-scale river basins. His group utilizes field observations, long-term hydro-climate data, numerical and statistical models to examine the movement of water, solutes and sediments in response to environmental change and human management. Noel is a member of the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force SERA-46 research group representing the University of Missouri. The SERA-46 group is a consortium of twelve Land Grant…

Nov. 3, 2017

Chung-Ho Lin

Lin is the lead scientist for the bioremediation, natural products and bioanalytical programs at the Center for Agroforestry at University of Missouri. His primary research involves the use of plants, microbes and engineered enzymes for bioremediation, ecological restoration, and development of bioeconomy. His bioremediation research focuses on bioremediation of organic pollutants and human pathogens. Since the COVID19 pandemic in 2020, Dr. Lin has successfully redirected the analytical resources and led his research team joining the task force ‘Coronavirus Sewershed Surveillance Project’ sponsored by the state and federal agencies to provide an early warning and capture the emergence of the…

July 20, 2017

Jianfeng Zhou

Zhou is an Associate Professor of Agricultural Systems Technology at the Division of Plant Science and Technology. He received PhD degree in Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Washington State University in 2014. He joined the University of Missouri in 2016 with a research and teaching appointment. Dr. Zhou teaches courses related to sensors, control and internet of things technology in agricultural systems. His research interests mainly focus on digital and precision agriculture, computer vision, high-throughput crop phenotyping, robotic harvesting technologies and precision livestock farming. Dr. Zhou authored more than 50 journal papers and six book chapters, edited two books. His…

July 3, 2017

Dan Downing

Educational background M.S. Extension and Adult Education, University of Missouri B.S. Agricultural Mechanization, University of Missouri Courses taught AST 2320: Internal Combustion Power…