He is a member of Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, and Gamma Sigma Delta. He was a member of the organizing committee for the most recent International Conference on Plant Growth Substances and the International Conference on Cytochromes P450 in Plants and Microorganisms. He is also a co-host for the annual Midwest Cytochromes P450 Symposium which is held on the Purdue campus. He served as department head from 1987-1997. In our laboratory we study plant growth substances and herbicides which affect plant growth.
Gibberellins are natural plant hormones.
They stimulate seed germination, stem elongation, flower initiation, and seed growth. Understanding how and where these hormones are formed in the plant has been our goal for several years. We have isolated some of the enzymes involved in production of gibberellins and demonstrated that their activities change in certain tissues throughout development. During the past year several of the genes which encode enzymes in the gibberellin biosynthetic pathway have been discovered and sequenced by others. We are currently working toward the isolation of the last few genes in this pathway.