Kevin Folta receives IFAS' first HHMI Distinguished Mentor award
Sometimes, it’s easy to get lost at a place as big as the University of Florida—and we’re not talking about school’s 2,000 acres of land. Spanning more than 150 research centers and institutes packed with world-changing intellect, UF is a virtual academic Brobdingnag for undergraduates newly navigating the giant world of science.
That’s why the efforts of researchers like Kevin Folta, an assistant professor of horticultural sciences, can matter so much.
Folta is the first member of IFAS to receive a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Distinguished Mentor award. Now in its second year, the program annually recognizes six UF researchers who go above and beyond to extend their research to undergraduates.
“It’s easy for researchers at a university to forget that a big part of why we’re here is the students,” Folta said. “And it’s not just out of the kindness of our hearts…. As much as any of us would like to live forever and discover everything—we have to invest in students so they can expand and advance our fields of research.”
Folta has a dual research focus. On one hand, he studies how various qualities of light can affect plant development. For example, how different intensities, colors and exposure times can cause plants to produce different numbers of flowers or more vegetative plant mass. Here light, rather than chemicals, is useful to control growth habits.
On the other hand, Folta heads what could be considered the leading strawberry genomics program in the country. He is currently the chairman of the U.S. Rosaceae Genetics, Genomics and Breeding Executive Committee.
In four years at UF, Folta has hosted research appointments for 17 undergraduate students. Five of them have contributed to peer-reviewed scientific journals. In all, the undergraduate research findings have been presented in more than 20 abstracts and poster presentations at national and international conferences.
The award is funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as part of UF’s Science for Life program. Each winner receives approximately $10,000 in discretionary funding to help develop and promote undergraduate research.
Click here to visit the Folta Lab's page
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