Faculty

Aug. 31, 2023
Jasmine Neupane
Jasmine Neupane is an Assistant Professor of Agricultural Systems Technology in the Division of Plant Science and Technology. Her faculty appointment includes research and teaching responsibilities in Plant Science and Technology. Before starting her position at University of Missouri-Columbia, Neupane was serving as an Assistant Research Professor of Precision Agriculture at Montana State University. Neupane’s research is at the forefront of agricultural innovation, focusing on seamless integration of advanced agricultural technologies into cropping systems. Her work is driven by a deep commitment to addressing the complex challenges facing modern agriculture, such as increasing food production to feed a growing…

Aug. 30, 2023
Zachary Leasor
Zack is an assistant professor in climate science within the School of Natural Resources. He also works as State Climatologist and director of the Missouri Climate Center. He serves on panels dealing with adverse weather conditions such as drought and flooding. He also works with the National Weather Service offices and regional climate services to provide climate data and prepare special summaries of significant weather and climate events. Originally from Louisville, Ky., Zack spent the last several years living in Columbus, Ohio, before moving to Missouri during the summer of 2023. Zack received a bachelor’s degree in meteorology, with a minor…

Aug. 9, 2023
Alex Stichnote

Aug. 8, 2023
Hong Im Kim
Kim is an assistant research professor in the Division of Animal Sciences, and part of the new faculty group in the NextGen Precision Health Institute, where world-class researchers are seeking answers for the toughest diseases. Prior to joining CAFNR, she served as a senior researcher in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Michigan State University, where she focused on identification and analysis of genes associated with survival rate in endometrial cancer and ovarian clear cell cancers. She received her Ph.D. in Medical Science from Chung-Ang University in South Korea and completed post-doctoral training at Louisiana State University…

July 26, 2023
Dojin (DJ) Ryu
Educational background Ph.D., Food Science and Technology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1997 M.S., Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Missouri, 1992 B.S., Food Science and Technology, Korea University, Seoul, Korea, 1989…

July 5, 2023
Jaime Barros-Rios
The Barros laboratory is dedicated to conducting both fundamental research and applied biotechnology to tackle global challenges such as food security, climate change and the sustainable production of energy and commodity chemicals. Our work in the lab revolves around three main objectives: Enhancing stress tolerance, forage quality and CO2 sequestration in food and feed crops. Developing bioenergy crops to achieve sustainable production of fuels, chemicals and bioproducts. Generating trees with improved properties for the production of paper pulp. The primary focus of our research lies in understanding the metabolic processes related to plant cell wall composition, specifically focusing on the…

June 30, 2023
Stephanie McKay
The overarching goal of the McKay lab is to utilize the latest advances in biotechnology while developing new methodologies and resources to determine the extent to which epigenetic and epitranscriptomic modifications contribute towards economically important traits in livestock. While many epigenetic modifications exist, her current research focus is on 5-Methylcytosine, 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine and N6-Methyladenosine. The context in which her lab studies these modifications include neuroepigenomics, comparative epigenomics and functional annotation. Educational background Ph.D., University of Alberta M.S., Texas A&M University B.S., Texas A&M University…

June 21, 2023
Adauto Rocha Junior
Educational background Ph.D., Agricultural Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Ph.D., Applied Economics, University of São Paulo (ESALQ) M.S., Economics, University of Viçosa B.S., Agronomy, State University of São Paulo…

June 5, 2023
Amy Petry
Petry is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Animal Science at the University of Missouri, where she leads the MU Monogastric Nutrition Research Lab. Her lab utilizes basic and innovative science to develop, advance, or improve applied nutrition solutions. Her team’s research themes encompass: 1) enhancing fiber utilization and its impact on energy and health benefits in swine diets, 2) exploring the interactions between diet and physiology at a whole-body level, 3) optimizing energy and nutrient supply during homeorhetic states, and 4) developing nutritional biomedical pig models. In 2020, Dr. Petry earned her Ph.D. from Iowa State University. Throughout…

May 23, 2023
Ruojie Vanessa Zhang
Educational background Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst…