Shahid M. Mukhtar

Dr. Shahid M. Mukhtar is a tenured Full Professor in the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry at Clemson University's College of Science. Previously, he held faculty positions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), advancing from Assistant to Full Professor. He earned his Ph.D. in Genetics from the Max Planck Institute (Germany) and conducted postdoctoral research at UNC Chapel Hill, focusing on Arabidopsis-pathogen interactions.

His research integrates systems biology, genomics, and spatial transcriptomics to study non-canonical genetic elements like extrachromosomal DNA and microproteins. He leads efforts to establish Stereo-seq technology for high-resolution spatial profiling in plant and animal systems. Dr. Mukhtar is Director of the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee (MASC) and has organized conferences for the American Society of Plant Biologists and Plant & Animal Genome meetings.

He has received awards including the Odessa Woolfolk Community Service Award (2023) and President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2021). His lab actively seeks students interested in computational biology, multi-omics analysis, and plant-microbe interactions. Mentorship highlights include students winning NSF fellowships, Samuel Barker Awards, and other accolades.