Research
Research program in crop stress physiology, plant metabolism, multi-omics integration, and predictive modeling.
Research Vision
My research examines how crops respond to complex abiotic stress from the cellular scale to whole-plant and field performance. I integrate physiology, metabolomics, ionomics, transcriptomics, phenomics, root-shoot traits, and computational modeling to identify mechanisms, thresholds, and predictive signatures of resilience.
Major Themes
Combined Abiotic Stress In Grapevine
My PhD research focused on Vitis vinifera grafts exposed to combined salinity, water deficit, and heat-related stress. The work links rootstock variation with ion regulation, photosynthesis, water status, metabolism, phenology, and agronomic performance.
Rootstock-Mediated Stress Resilience
I study how belowground traits influence scion physiology and whole-plant performance. Key questions include how root system architecture, ion selectivity, and root-shoot signaling shape stress acclimation and yield stability.
Plant Metabolomics And Multi-Omics Integration
My work uses GC-MS, LC-MS, HS-SPME-GC-MS, ICP-OES, and transcriptomic integration to identify biochemical signatures of stress response. I am especially interested in central carbon metabolism, specialized metabolism, ion partitioning, and pathway-level regulation under combined stress.
Thresholds, Tipping Points, And Network Analysis
A recurring goal is to define when plants shift from acclimation to stress-response modes. I use physiology, metabolomics, ionomics, phenology, agronomic data, network inference, and machine learning to identify trait breakpoints and regulatory nodes.
Climate-Informed Predictive Modeling
Current postdoctoral work integrates multi-year physiological phenotyping, UAV-based thermal sensing, metabolomics, gene expression, and climate data to predict varietal performance under heatwave stress and future climate scenarios.
Crop Systems
- Grapevine, especially Vitis vinifera cv. Syrah and varietal collections under arid and warm viticulture.
- Sorghum and other dryland cereals, including work on breeding, multi-environment trials, and stress adaptation.
- Maize, barley, wheat, beans, and haricot bean systems through prior agronomy, seed quality, and crop improvement work.