Botany & Plant Pathology
Source: https://ag.purdue.edu/department/btny/index.html Parent: https://ag.purdue.edu/department/oap/pathway-to-purdue.html
Botany and Plant Pathology
Future Students
Graduate Students
Groundbreaking Research
Image provided by Geng and Zhou, 2022
Purdue Herbaria
Plant & Pest Diagnostic Lab
Purdue Pesticide Programs
Botany & Plant Pathology
Planting seeds of innovation and discovery for plant sciences since 1887.
Join Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMSGRADUATE PROGRAMS
CONTACT US
Department of Botany and Plant Pathology\ Lilly Hall of Life Sciences, Room 1-446\ 915 Mitch Daniels Boulevard\ West Lafayette, IN 47907\ (765) 494-4615\ botany@purdue.edu
Read the latest edition of the Root of the Matter newsletter
Read the latest edition of the Root of the Matter newsletter
New & Noteworthy
New & Noteworthy
Sticking together under stress
AgSEED grants grow success
The average long-term return on the stock market is about 10 percent. For AgSEED, the Purdue College of Agriculture’s internal competitive grants system, it’s more like 400 percent. It’s an outsized return with outsized impact, benefiting researchers, students, and citizens across the state and beyond.
Purdue welcomes two faculty members for Spring 2026 semester
Camila Nicolli, research assistant professor of mycotoxin fungal biology in the Department of Plant Pathology, and Matheus Zavadinack, research assistant professor in carbohydrate chemistry in the Department of Food Science, have joined Purdue University's College of Agriculture faculty this Spring semester.
Sticking together under stress: NSF grant brings plant biologists and engineers together to discover how tissues stay connected
Daniel Szymanski, professor of Purdue’s Departments of Botany and Plant Pathology and Biological Sciences, and Thomas Siegmund, professor in Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering, as well as Chelsea Davis, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Delaware, recently received an $1.1 million award to Purdue and a $345 thousand award for the University of Delaware from the National Science Foundation to advance knowledge on plant cell adhesion.
Ian Rimer - Graduate Ag Research Spotlight
Growing up in Greenwood, Indiana, Ian Rimer was the quintessential outdoor kid, spending most of his time running around in cornfields or exploring the forest near his house. From a young age, he was aware that the natural world he loved was under threat. His father, a school principal, was an ardent environmentalist, and Rimer grew up learning about drought in Australia and the ravages of beetles in the boreal forests of the far north. “I feel very blessed to have had that awareness at such a young age,” he says. As a Purdue undergrad, Rimer initially majored in pharmacy before switching to biology, but found himself increasingly drawn to plant sciences. He emailed several plant sciences professors to see if they had any research opportunities, and was put in touch with a new faculty member, Scott McAdam. He began working in McAdam’s lab, which investigates plant water use and drought tolerance. “That really interested me because I’m a climate activist, and I knew I wanted to look at whole plant responses to the environment,” Rimer says. “So it was a good fit.” When Rimer decided to apply to grad school, McAdam suggested he consider staying at Purdue. Rimer began his PhD in botany and plant pathology in January of 2023.
Plant ‘first responder’ cells warn neighbors about bacterial pathogens
Purdue University researchers found that a subset of epidermal cells in plant leaves serves as early responders to chemical cues from bacterial pathogens and communicate this information to neighbors through a local traveling wave of calcium ions. The properties of this local wave differ from those generated when epidermal cells are wounded, suggesting that distinct mechanisms are used by plants to communicate specific types of pathogen attack, the team reported Dec. 2 in Science Signaling.
Terry Torres Cruz - Postdoctoral Scholar Feature
Terry Torres Cruz’s path to mycology — the study of fungi — has been guided by lots of curiosity and a little bit of fate. Growing up in rural Costa Rica, Torres Cruz wasn’t sure what she wanted to study. “I didn’t know what all my options were,” she says. “Just general ideas: police officer, firefighter, doctor.” She’d seen the show “CSI,” which made criminology look interesting. So she applied to several science-related college programs, figuring she’d go with the most selective one that accepted her. That turned out to be biotechnology engineering. The program required all students to do an internship or thesis, so Torres Cruz got in touch with an alumna who had a lab at Western Illinois University. The lab focused on fungi, something Torres Cruz knew little about. But she found the work fascinating, so she stayed on for a master’s degree. For her thesis, she described a new fungal genus and species in the Mucoromycotina subphylum — Bifiguratus adelaidae, one of the “Top 50 most wanted Fungi.” “I thought that was really cool,” she says. “Not a lot of people get to do that.” She went on to do her PhD in plant pathology with a dual title in biogeochemistry at Penn State. Her dissertation project focused on a plant-fungal interaction in a type of South American grass. Her research required travel to Guyana, so her advisor told her to contact Purdue’s Cathie Aime, professor of botany and plant pathology. “Her lab has been going to Guyana yearly for over 25 years,” Torres Cruz says. “My advisor put me in touch with her so I wouldn’t have to travel there alone.” Torres Cruz joined Aime’s team conducting field research in remote areas in 2019 and 2021. The trips involved long journeys down muddy roads and sleeping overnight in hammocks. On their last day in the field, Aime asked Torres Cruz about her postgraduation plans. “She said, ‘Once you are certain, let me know. I might have a postdoc open,’” Torres Cruz recalls. Torres Cruz arrived at Purdue in 2023.
What is a Botanist?
From the smallest moss to giant sequoia trees, from lichen to mushrooms, from corn to the bacteria and fungi that grow with it — botany goes beyond the study of plants. Botanists are plant scientists, curious about the natural world and how living things grow, interact with each other and change their environment.
Botany and Plant Pathology research protects crucial ecosystems, influences conservation and natural resource management and secures humanity’s food supply with discoveries in genetics, microbiology, plant health, mycology, ecology, anatomy and weed control.
Cutting-edge science, rich in history
Formally established in 1887, Botany and Plant Pathology has a deep-rooted legacy at Purdue. One of the six original professors at Purdue University was botanist Reverend John Hussey, and the first doctoral degree given by Purdue was to Daniel T. MacDougal, a botanist with a thesis titled, “The Curvature of Roots.”
Botany and Plant Pathology is home to 32 faculty members making innovations and discoveries that span plant health, anatomy and physiology, microbiology, environment and ecology, genetics and mycology.
Botany is one of the oldest sciences. People around the world have long studied plants and fungi for food, materials and medicine. Purdue University’s One Health initiative is kickstarting a new age of interdisciplinary research connecting plant science to environmental, human and animal health. Plant science research is more important today than ever before to feed and care for the growing global population and protect the Earth that supports it.
Can I be a botanist?
Are you interested in how plants and fungi grow? Do you wonder about the complex relationships between plants, microbes and their environment? Want to know how cells change to stretch their leaves and stems toward the sun? You may be a botanist in the making — join Botany and Plant Pathology’s plant science major!
"Purdue University is a hub for plant science research, with diverse flavors of fundamental science that enriches knowledge of plants, to how they grow, to translating that knowledge to solve current and emerging societal challenges. To keep up with global population growth and a changing planet, we are bringing botany into the 21st century with a tight-knit but interdisciplinary community of scientists and students."
Tesfaye Mengiste\ Botany and Plant Pathology Department Head
Tesfaye Mengiste Botany and Plant Pathology Department Head
"Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue houses the world’s most important collection of rust fungi — obligate plant pathogens that can cause devastating disease in agricultural crops and natural ecosystems. Purdue has been a global center for the study of these fungi for more than 100 years."
M. Catherine (Cathie) Aime\ Professor of Mycology
M. Catherine (Cathie) Aime Professor of Mycology
"I love the hands-on lab experiences that make plant biology come to life and the excitement that students bring to discovering how plants shape our planet. The enthusiasm in botany is contagious."
Morgan Furze\ Assistant Professor of Botany and Forestry
Morgan Furze Assistant Professor of Botany and Forestry
"The botany department at Purdue University is a wonderful place to integrate both basic and applied plant research. Our comprehensive curriculum and collaborative research environment provide students with outstanding opportunities to engage in hands-on research, work closely with experts across disciplines, and prepare for a wide range of career paths in plant science."
Yun Zhou\ Associate Professor of Plant Developmental Biology
Yun Zhou Associate Professor of Plant Developmental Biology
Subscribe & Support
Botany and Plant Pathology is a community that includes you. Our Extension agents, farmers and the people they feed are crucial parts of our research. Subscribe to our newsletter, Root of the Matter, to stay updated on our latest discoveries and impacts around the world. Your support and donations help us continue to push the boundaries of plant science and beyond.
Facilities & Communities
Scientists need more than just a lab to flourish. The College of Agriculture and the Botany and\ Plant Pathology Department connects faculty, staff and students to a variety of facilities and\ communities on campus to help them, their research and their outreach grow.
Plant & Pest Diagnostic Lab
↓
Identifies insects, plants, pests and plant diseases
Center for Plant Biology
↓
Purdue’s community for basic plant biologists
Purdue Herbaria
↓
Preserves over 235,000 specimens of fungi and plants
Ag Alumni Seed Phenotyping Facility
↓
Measures and analyzes plants’ physical characteristics
Graduate Student Organization
↓
Offers social events, educational trips and travel grants for graduate students
Botany Club
↓
An undergraduate club open to all interested in plants, fungi and microbes
Purdue Pesticide Programs
↓
Nationally respected pesticide applicator training
Life Science Range and Plant Growth Facility
↓
Primary greenhouse space for research, teaching and outreach
Plant & Pest Diagnostic Lab
↓
Identifies insects, plants, pests and plant diseases
Center for Plant Biology
↓
Purdue’s community for basic plant biologists
Purdue Herbaria
↓
Preserves over 235,000 specimens of fungi and plants
Ag Alumni Seed Phenotyping Facility
↓
Measures and analyzes plants’ physical characteristics
Graduate Student Organization
↓
Offers social events, educational trips and travel grants for graduate students
Botany Club
↓
An undergraduate club open to all interested in plants, fungi and microbes
Purdue Pesticide Programs
↓
Nationally respected pesticide applicator training
Life Science Range and Plant Growth Facility
↓
Primary greenhouse space for research, teaching and outreach