Researchers
Hover over any of the team members to view a full bio. . .
Mark Hoffmann
Mark is Assistant Professor and Small Fruit Extension Specialist at NC State University. He has more than 15 years of research experience in several horticultural crops and has been engaged with the US strawberry industry since 2015.
Small Fruits Extension Specialist. Director. Daughter Plant Physiology, Extension, Lead Translational Team
Ricardo Hernandez
Dr. Hernández is Co-Project Director Assistant Professor, Controlled Environment/Greenhouse Team Leader, and an expert in controlled environment horticulture strategies at NC State University. His research is focused on optimizing and the control of environmental factors for the propagation and production in specialty crops, utilizing greenhouse and closed environment systems.
Ricardo Hernandez
Assoc. Professor; Co-Director; Lead Mother Plant Physiology
Gina Fernandez
Dr. Fernandez is Co-Project Director, J. D. Leazer and W. N. Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Horticulture, the strawberry and caneberry breeder at NC State University, and the Caneberry Extension Specialist.
Gina Fernandez
Dist. Professor; Co-Director; Translational Team
Cheiri Kubota
Dr. Kubota is a Professor of Controlled Environment Agriculture at the Ohio State University. Dr. Kubota worked for 6 years in Chiba University (Japan),16 years at the University of Arizona and 2.5 years at OSU (Columbus) as a new faculty member focusing on controlled environment crop production. She interacts regularly with greenhouses, indoor farms and nursery stakeholders to identify and address issues in crop production under protected cultivation, such as optimizing aerial environmental conditions and nutrient management.
Cheiri Kubota
Professor; Lead Daughter Plant Physiology
Zhongchi Liu
Dr. Liu is currently a Professor at the Dept. of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD. Dr. Liu received her Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology, Harvard University and postdoc training in Plant Development under Dr. Elliot Meyerowitz at California Institute of Technology.Her lab successfully identified and isolated a key strawberry gene that controls runner formation (Caruana et al., Molecular Plant, 2018). Dr. Liu and her group showed that the strawberry gene (RGA1) in the GA signaling pathway represses runner formation.
Zhongchi Liu
Professor; Genetics Team
Peter Nitzsche
Peter Nitzsche is an Agricultural and Resource Management Agent/Professor with Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Morris County, New Jersey with over 26 years of experience in conducting research and educational programs in commercial vegetable and small fruit production and marketing. He has a B.S. degree in Plant Science and an M.S. degree in Horticulture from Rutgers the State University. The recent focus of his research has been tomatoes, strawberries and the evaluation of unique ethnic and specialty crops.
Peter Nitzsche
Rutgers Extension Dep. Head; Lead, Extension Team
Heidi Schweizer
Heidi Schweizer is an assistant professor and extension specialist in the agricultural and resource economics department at NC State since 2018. She holds a Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California at Davis. In general, her research focuses on supply chain management and transportation of agricultural products. Her previous research investigates how large changes to policy and infrastructure can affect the set of marketing opportunities growers face, differing by geography. Current research focuses on the production of North Carolina grains and oilseeds, and the logistics of supplying feedstuffs to North Carolina animal agriculture.
Heidi Schweizer
Assist. Professor; Lead Economics Team
Jennifer Boldt
Research Horticulturist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Application Technology Research Unit (Toledo, OH). Her research focuses on cultural and environmental management to improve production of ornamentals and edibles in controlled environments. Current research interests include crop quality and yield optimization in response to light, temperature, and CO2; plant nutrition; and the role of silicon in managing abiotic and biotic stresses and developing silicon application strategies for growers.
Jennifer Boldt
Research Horticulturist; Mother Plant Physiology
Edward Durner
Associate Research Professor in the Department of Plant Biology at Rutgers University. He has 35 years of experience in horticultural science (primarily fruit) research, teaching and outreach. His research involves flowering physiology of strawberry and developing goldenberries as a new crop for North America. He recently received a three-year USDA Northeast Region SARE grant for developing goldenberry production strategies for the Northeast US and a NJ Department of Ag Specialty Crop Grant for alternative production strategies for strawberries.
Edward Durner
Associate Professor; Daughter Plant Physiology
Celina Gómez
Associate Professor, Controlled Environment Agriculture at Purdue University. Her research focuses on developing innovative production systems for the controlled environment horticulture industry, with an emphasis on optimizing economically viable practices for greenhouse and indoor production of specialty crops. Current areas of research include plant responses to sole-source lighting, indoor gardening, and indoor plant propagation.
Celina Gómez
Assistant Professor; Daughter Plant Physiology
Brian Jackson
Associate Professor and Director of the Horticultural Substrates Laboratory at NC State University. Brian has been at NCSU since 2009. Brian’s research program focuses on the development, characterization, and utilization of organic soilless substrates in horticultural crop production with a special emphasis on the engineering and development of bark and wood-based substrate components. Having worked, traveled, and studied in over 50 countries, Brian maintains an extensive national and international professional network that he uses to facilitate collaborations and build research partnerships for the promotion and advancement of Substrate Science and Soilless Culture for traditional (ornamental) and non traditional (food crops) in container growing systems.
Brian Jackson
Professor; Mother Plant Physiology
Shinsuke Agehara
Dr. Shinsuke Agehara is an Assistant Professor at University of Florida’s Gulf Coast Research and Education Center. His research focus is on understanding stress adaptation mechanisms and improving crop management in strawberry and vegetable production systems.
Shinsuke Agehara
Assistant Professor; Translational Team
Oleg Daugovish
Oleg is a strawberry and vegetable crop advisor at the University of California’s Agricultural and Natural Resources Department. He received a Bachelor’s of Science in Agronomy and Plant Science from the Latvia University of Agriculture, a Masters of Science in Plant science from the University of Nebraska, and a Ph.D in Plant Science from the University of Idaho. He specializes in Agricultural and Environmental Issues for Vegetable Crops and Strawberries
Strawberry and Vegetable Crop Advisor Ventura Co.; Extension and Translational Team
Gerald Holmes
Gerald Holmes is the Director of the Strawberry Center at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California. The Center is a partnership between Cal Poly and the California Strawberry Commission. The Strawberry Center is intimately connected to stakeholders through its applied research program and training students for careers in the strawberry industry. Gerald got his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from UC Riverside in 1994 then worked as a University of California Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor in Imperial County for three years. For the next 12 years he was an Extension Vegetable Pathologist and Associate Professor at NC State University then he was Product Development Manager for Valent USA Corporation before becoming Director of the Center in 2014.
Gerald Holmes
CalPoly Strawberry Center Director; Translational Team
Courtney Weber
Associate Research Professor in the Department of Plant Biology at Rutgers University. He has 35 years of experience in horticultural science (primarily fruit) research, teaching and outreach. His research involves flowering physiology of strawberry and developing goldenberries as a new crop for North America. He recently received a three-year USDA Northeast Region SARE grant for developing goldenberry production strategies for the Northeast US and a NJ Department of Ag Specialty Crop Grant for alternative production strategies for strawberries.
Courtney Weber
Associate Professor; Translational Team
Caren Chang
Dr. Chang received her bachelor’s degree
in biophysics from U.C. Berkeley and earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology from California Institute of Technology. Her research at University of Maryland focuses on the plant hormone ethylene, which has far-reaching agricultural impacts. Dr. Chang
investigates the molecular mechanisms of ethylene signaling in non-crop models, such as Arabidopsis thaliana, and is also interested in the evolutionary history of ethylene as a plant hormone.
Caren Chang
University of Maryland Distinguished Scholar-Teacher; Genetics Team Leader
Daniel Tregeagle
Dr. Tregeagle is an assistant professor and extension specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. His work is focused on the economics of specialty crops and the economics of agricultural policy more generally. Applications have included analyzing agro-environmental policy, market analysis, minimizing costs of processing supply chains, and optimizing orchard replacement.
Current work includes estimating the value of improved disease resistance for cucurbit crops, studying specialty crop supply elasticities, and preparing specialty crop budgets.
Daniel Tregeagle
Assistant Professor and Extension Ag Econ Specialist; Economics Team
Jayesh Samtani
Dr. Samtani has been working in berry research and outreach for over 10 years. He has done considerable research and outreach in California as a post-doctoral researcher and in his current position in the mid-Atlantic region. His research focus has been on evaluating alternatives to preplant methyl bromide fumigation for strawberry particularly looking at steam, soil solarization, biosolarization and anaerobic soil disinfestation strategies to assist both conventional and organic berry growers. Since starting as the Small Fruit Production Specialist with Virginia Tech, in 2013, Samtani’s program has evaluated new strawberry cultivars in varied geographic regions of Virginia.
Jayesh Samtani
Small Fruit Extension Specialist; Extension Team