معرفی
Seung Yon (Sue) Rhee is the MSU Foundation Professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Plant Biology, and Plant, Soil, and Microbiology at Michigan State University (MSU), and Director of MSU’s Plant Resilience Institute. She holds leadership roles in multiple scientific initiatives, including the Water and Life Interface Institute (WALII) and the Plant Cell Atlas. Her work focuses on plant adaptation to environmental stresses, metabolic networks, and translational applications for climate resilience.
Dr. Rhee earned her B.A. in Biology from Swarthmore College (1992) and her Ph.D. in Biology from Stanford University (1998). She previously served at the Carnegie Institution for Science, where she held roles from Staff Associate to Senior Staff Scientist, and directed the Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR). Her research emphasizes decoding biological traits across scales and developing tools for gene annotation and metabolic pathway analysis.
Her research interests include molecular mechanisms of plant adaptation to heat, drought, and nutrient limitations; systems biology approaches to analyze metabolic networks; and leveraging computational models for translational applications like carbon sequestration and bioenergy crop optimization. She prioritizes training scientists from underrepresented groups to tackle neglected societal challenges, fostering independent, collaborative, and rigorous lab environments.
Dr. Rhee’s lab is known for its focus on professional development, leadership, and ethical scientific practices. Members are encouraged to lead projects, engage in interdisciplinary collaboration, and contribute to lab and departmental activities. Her lab actively develops tools such as UnigeneFinder and QTG-Finder, and has published foundational work on gene ontology systems.
