Chris Pires
Department Head
Professor
Biography
J. Chris Pires is a Professor and Head of the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Colorado State University. He received his B.A. from the University of California – Berkeley in 1990 and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2000. After postdoctoral fellowships at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Agronomy department at the University of Wisconsin, Chris rose through the ranks at the University of Missouri – Columbia from Assistant Professor to Curator’s Distinguished Professor.
Research Interests
Most of his research is on the crop Brassicas including Brassica oleracea (cabbages, cauliflower, kale), Brassica rapa (turnips, sarsons, pak choi) and Brassica napus (canola, oilseeds, forage rape, rutabaga.) He is interested in how duplicated genes and chromosomes can lead to new traits to improve crops for agriculture. His goal is to expand the impact of our land grant mission as we train the next generation of scientists, entrepreneurs, and leaders.
- Plant genetics and genomics
- Crop domestication
- Adaptation to climate change