Duke Pauli

Duke Pauli is an Associate Professor in the School of Plant Sciences at the University of Arizona, part of the College of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences. His research focuses on integrating high-throughput phenotyping, genomics, and data science to elucidate the genetic basis of plant stress adaptation, particularly under abiotic stresses like drought. He leads efforts in three synergistic areas: genomic variation analysis, high-throughput phenotyping of dynamic plant traits, and gene discovery for agronomic traits.

His teaching responsibilities include courses on PLS 415 Plant Breeding and Genetics and PLS 306 Crop Science and Production. Duke's affiliations span multiple research clusters within the School, including Crop and Horticultural Management & Production, Environmental & Stress Biology, and Genetics & Epigenetics.

His work emphasizes practical applications, such as developing drought-tolerant crop varieties and optimizing irrigation strategies through advanced sensing technologies. Notable contributions include the PhytoOracle data processing pipelines and innovations in 3D plant organ segmentation using PlantSegNet. Duke collaborates extensively with institutions like the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and employs cutting-edge tools like Vocus-PTR sensors and microtensiometers.

His research has been published in over 30 peer-reviewed articles between 2017 and 2025, with a focus on sorghum, cotton, and maize. Key themes include root microbiome dynamics under drought, mRNA modifications in stress responses, and metabolomic profiling of plant stress interactions.