Dr. Venugopal Mendu is the Department Chair of the Agriculture, Agribusiness and Environmental Sciences Department in the Dick and Mary Lewis Kleberg College of Agriculture at 91AV. He obtained his Ph.D. in the plant physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology program from the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY. He received his postdoctoral training at the University of Kentucky and École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France. He joined as an assistant professor of cell wall biology at Texas Tech University and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. He worked as the Winifred Asbjornson Endowed Chair in the Department of Plant Science and Plant Pathology at Montana State University. His lab uses Arabidopsis model system and crop plants for fundamental and applied research. Dr. Mendu’s lab conducts research on plant cell wall biology, developmental biology, light signaling, biotic and abiotic stresses. His lab uses genetic, genomics, molecular, genome editing and biochemical technologies for fundamental and applied research.
Dr. Mendu has received a total of $6.5M funding for his research, published 47 research articles and 8 book chapters. He has mentored 15 graduate students as a major supervisor, 7 postdocs, international scholars and more than 50 undergraduate students. He has received 5 awards including “TTU Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Research award”, the highest award for research activity at TTU and “Integrated Plant and Soil Sciences Alumnus Early Career” award from University of Kentucky.
