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Plants Are a Radical Solution to Climate Change

Plants are fundamental to life. They produce the air we breathe, the food we eat, the materials we build with, and the energy we use. By studying plants, we unlock solutions to humanity’s greatest challenge: Living on an increasingly hotter planet.


However, plants seem to have already developed solutions to survive climate change. Therefore, we focus on understanding how plant roots interact and cooperate below ground. We employ field and greenhouse experiments, develop advanced imaging instruments, use sequencing of root tissues and soil microbes, and create computational tools to understand root phenotypes as a consequence of root cooperation. This allows us to investigate the form-function relationships of plant roots. Gaining a deeper mechanistic insight into how plants support each other to mitigate increasingly adverse environments is important because plants can't run away to better environments. Ultimately, our goal is to enhance the ecosystem services plants provide and to apply our research— from sustainable agriculture and bioenergy production to excess carbon removal.

The World’s Biggest Problems Can’t Be Solved by a Single Discipline

Multidisciplinarity reflects for us the diversity of our backgrounds—we didn’t start as plant phenomisist because the field didn’t exist when we began. As an emerging science studying the dynamic interactions between plants and their environments, plant phenomics welcomes individuals from any discipline who are driven to create both basic and applied science solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Join Us Early as an Undergraduate

We train undergraduate students from all majors! Our alumni come from diverse fields, including Genetics, Economics, and Mathematics. No matter your background, you can join our community and explore plant phenomics.

We offer independent study opportunities, summer internships, and thesis projects for undergraduates interested in this cutting-edge field. Paid research positions are regularly advertised on handshake. To get started, contact Alexander Bucksch via email.

Pursue a Ph.D. at the Intersection of Disciplines

Are you interested in pursuing a Ph.D. with us? We currently train doctoral students through programs in Plant Science, Statistics & Data Science, Applied Mathematics, and the Arizona Biological & Biomedical Sciences umbrella program. Our projects cover a wide range of topics, from field experiments and computer modeling to imaging and sensor development.

If you’re passionate about phenomics and cross-disciplinary research, we’d love to hear from you. While having a fellowship is a strong advantage, feel free to reach out to discuss opportunities.

Cross-Train as a Postdoc to Diversify Your Expertise

Postdoctoral researchers are welcome to contact Alexander Bucksch directly to discuss developing a fellowship proposal to join the lab. While we don’t currently have funded positions, we advertise openings through LinkedIn and our website when available.