Bob Sharp recently joined a prestigious group of University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources faculty as a Curators’ Distinguished Professor, MU’s highest and most prestigious rank. Sharp is a professor in the Division of Plant Sciences and serves as the director of the campus-wide Interdisciplinary Plant Group (IPG).

“I am greatly honored to receive this recognition,” Sharp said. “MU, CAFNR and the IPG in particular have provided an outstanding environment to progress in my career, and of course my many lab members over the years have played a key role in this story.”

Sharp joined Mizzou in 1986 as assistant professor in the Department of Horticulture. He became a professor in the Department of Agronomy in 1997 and served as interim director of the newly-formed Division of Plant Sciences from 2005-08. He has served as the director of IPG since 2011. Sharp has research and teaching appointments in plant physiology. His research focuses on the regulation of root and shoot growth responses to drought, using maize as a model system. He is interested in the roles and mechanism of action of abscisic acid (ABA) and other hormones, and in the regulation of cell wall yielding properties. Sharp teaches a graduate course on advanced plant physiology.

Sharp earned his bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and his PhD in plant physiology from Lancaster University (UK). He served as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and the University of California, Davis, before joining Mizzou.

Sharp is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB). Sharp has received many awards and honors, including CAFNR’s Frederick B. Mumford Distinguished Faculty Award, and has been invited to present at numerous conferences and seminars around the world.