Plant & Soil Sciences

Dr. Daniel Adamson was raised on a cow-calf ranch in southern Wyoming where he developed his love for agriculture and desire to help producers overcome challenges with practical, tested resources. Dr. Adamson completed his education at the University of Wyoming, where he attained a BS in Agroecology, MS in Agronomy, and PhD in Soil Science. Between his master's and PhD degrees, Dr. Adamson also worked as a Certified Crop Advisor for a regional agricultural co-op in northern Colorado. Dr. Adamson joined the department of Plant and Soil Sciences at Oklahoma State University in fall 2024 as the Extension Specialist for Soil and Water Management and Conservation. His research and extension interests are centered around management impacts on soil health and soil functionality on the farm, ranch, and around the home.  

Bee Khim Chim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at Oklahoma State University (OSU) and Director of the Soil, Water, and Forage Analytical Laboratory (SWFAL). In this role, she leads soil, water, plant tissue, and animal waste analytical programs that support agricultural management, environmental stewardship, and regulatory decision-making across Oklahoma.

Prior to joining OSU, Bee served as an Assistant Extension Professor and Potato Agronomist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, where she led applied research and outreach programs focused on nutrient and water management in potato production systems. Her work included field-based trials, grower education, and the development of science-based recommendations to support sustainable production in Northern Maine.

Chim’s current work integrates applied soil chemistry, analytical technologies, and field research to address real-world challenges, including nutrient efficiency, salinity stress, waste management, soil health, and uncertainty in soil and plant testing. She collaborates closely with producers, Extension educators, and researchers to improve how analytical data are generated, interpreted, and translated into defensible management decisions that support long-term agricultural productivity and sustainable agriculture in Oklahoma and beyond.

Research Interests

• Soil and plant analytical systems for agricultural decision-making
• Nutrient cycling, efficiency, and uncertainty in managed agroecosystems
• Waste management: nutrients, contaminants, and risk mitigation
• Salinity stress and soil remediation strategies
• Forage and specialty crop systems under soil and water constraints

Dr. Jennifer Dudak grew up in a rural community in Northeast Iowa. Her passion for agriculture and assisting producers in best management practices stemmed from spending time on the family farm. Dr. Dudak attended Texas A&M University, where she completed her BS in Plant and Environmental Soil Sciences while working for the TAMU Cotton Extension Program and her MS in Agronomy with her thesis research focusing on reniform nematode management in cotton production across the state. She earned her Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University where her dissertation work included evaluating a new cotton herbicide in HPPD-tolerant cotton systems for both weed control and cotton tolerance. Her research interests include new and existing cotton varieties and technologies evaluations, harvest aid demos, and application termination timings to equip cotton producers with better decision-making tools for their operations. 

Dr. Liberty B. Galvin was born and raised in Oklahoma and is the third generation in her family to complete a Bachelor's degree at Oklahoma State University. She completed a B.S. in Environmental Sciences with a double minor in Soil Science and Agronomy in 2013. During her undergraduate program she studied abroad to Njala University in Sierra Leone, West Africa, under the direction of Professors Jeffory Hattey and Mike Dicks. This study abroad experience led her back to Sierra Leone after graduation to conduct water, sanitation and hygiene projects. This experience led her to complete a M.S. degree in International Agricultural Development at University of California Davis in 2017.

Her M.S. research was funded by a USAID Research Innovation in Agriculture Fellowship and returned to Njala University to work with Professor Adolphus Johnson in the Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology department, analyzing communication networks between the university and local stakeholders. During her M.S. studies, she worked for Professor Brad Hanson in the Weed Science program as well as Ken Tate in the Rangeland Ecology Department.

Her work with Dr. Hanson introduced her to the field of Weed Science and she chose to pursue a PhD with Professor Kassim Al-Khatib at UC Davis. Dr. Galvin's PhD research was focused on utilizing biology and ecology of weedy rice to optimize timing of weed control strategies. Her research also included field-testing novel technologies and chemistries that improve yields through precision weed control. Once she completed her PhD in 2022, Dr. Galvin pursued a post doctoral opportunity with Professor Al-Khatib. Her main focus was to serve as a technical advisor for a USDA-Foreign Agricultural Services Cochran Fellowship project, focused on reducing barriers to international trade due to pesticide residue limitations.

Dr. Galvin has spent her academic career working closely with agricultural producers to solve complex problems related to integrated weed management and is excited to bring that experience back to her home state. She is an Assistant Professor of Extension Weed Science and Precision Weed management with an 85% extension and 15% research appointment.  Her current work includes assessing alternative weed control strategies to manage herbicide resistance in wheat, crop-weed competition studies, herbicide efficacy field trials, and UAV applications in agriculture. Dr. Galvin is a member of the Wheat Improvement Team at OSU and teaches a myriad of continuing education courses to pesticide applicator license holders across Oklahoma.

Dr. Chongyang (Oliver) Li was born in China and came to the United States in 2011. He earned a B.S. in Environmental Science in China, followed by an M.S. in Environmental Engineering and a Ph.D. in Soil and Biogeochemistry at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). He has received extensive academic and non-academic postdoctoral training at several universities and organizations, including UC Davis, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC), and the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA). His diverse professional experiences—from postdoctoral scholar to hazardous substance engineer to research scientist—helped him solidify his focus on soil chemistry and environmental biogeochemistry. Dr. Li’s previous research has examined soil amendments (e.g., biochar, animal wastes), soil contaminants (e.g., heavy metals, organic pollutants), soil enzyme activity assays, and the use of stable and radioactive isotopes to study soil nutrient cycling. At Oklahoma State University, his research interests include:

• Land application of animal wastes and biosolids on croplands and rangelands
• Monitoring and remediation of emerging soil contaminants (e.g., PAHs, PFAS, antibiotics)
• Nutrient cycling processes under different agronomic practices

Dr. Ochsner is originally from Chattanooga, Oklahoma. He earned a B.S. in Environmental Science at OSU in 1998. He then studied Soil Science and Water Resources at Iowa State University, earning a M.S. in 2000 and a Ph.D. in 2003. From 2003 through 2008, he worked as a soil scientist for the USDA Agricultural Research Service in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 2008, he joined OSU as a faculty member in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. He helps lead OSU's Rural Renewal Initiative and also participates in the OSU Fellowship of Christian Faculty and Staff. The mission of his soil physics research and teaching program is to help people better understand and appreciate the soil, the soil water balance, and the surface energy balance so that we can more wisely manage and conserve the land and water with which we have been entrusted. The primary focus is on multi-scale soil moisture monitoring and improved utilization of soil moisture data in agriculture, hydrology, and ecology.

Research Interests:
* soil science
* water resources
* physics
* agriculture
* environmental science
* coupled human-natural systems
* rural renewal

Scott A. Senseman joined Oklahoma State University as associate vice president of research for the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources in July 2021. He provides leadership for the long-range planning, operation and reporting for OSU Ag Research programs in support of the university's land-grant mission. A state agency, OSU Ag Research accounts for about a third of all research conducted at OSU, and 85% of the research-based royalties paid back into the university. Prior to joining the division, Senseman served as deputy assistant dean for the University of Tennessee's Herbert College of Agriculture, Interim Dean for UT Extension and as department head for the Department of Plant Sciences. He also served on the Texas A&M faculty for 19 years.

Research Interests:

Weed Science - Pesticide Fate and Herbicide Physiology

Research Objectives

1) To better understand the environmental fate of commonly used herbicides and their metabolites by conducting laboratory experiments that will determine relative adsorption, mobility, volatility, degradation, and uptake from soil, water and plants.
2) Compare off-site movement (surface runoff and leaching) of herbicides and other organic compounds applied within various agronomic situations.
3) Develop methodology that would facilitate safe and efficient analysis of pesticides from soil, water, and plant material.
4) Develop weed control strategies in rice.

Dr. Tadege is a Professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at OSU. He did his  Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology at the University of Bern in Switzerland with Dr.  Cris Kuhlemeier. He then moved to CSIRO, Plant Industry in Australia for his postdoctoral research and worked on regulation of floral transition in crop species in the laboratory of Dr. Jim Peacock and Dr. Liz Dennis. Dr. Tadege did a second postdoc at the Noble Research Institute in Ardmore, Oklahoma where he led the team that developed the Tnt1-tagged functional genomics resources in Medicago truncatula in the laboratory of Dr. Kiran Mysore. Dr. Tadege's current research seeks to understand the molecular mechanism of leaf blade development in eudicots and photoperiod response in sorghum. The leaf blade is a highly organized and differentiated photosynthetic structure, which develops from a small group of pluripotent stem cells in the shoot apical meristem (SAM). Once the leaf primordium initial cells are recruited from the peripheral region of the SAM, the primordium organizes itself into defined cell layers through highly regimented cell division and cell expansion patterns forming a flattened blade with functionally and structurally distinct adaxial (upper) and abaxial (lower) surfaces. Tadege's lab is interested to understand how these patterns govern blade initiation to mold the different leaf forms and blade expansion to determine leaf size during leaf morphiogenesis and maturation.

Dr. Wagner serves as the Director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Center at Oklahoma State University. As Director of the Water Center, he provides leadership and administration of the Center's water research, outreach, education, and grant programs; leads Center efforts to increase engagement with the water resources community across Oklahoma and the U.S.; and facilitates development of inter-disciplinary teams to address high priority water resources issues.

Research Interests:

Dr. Wagner engages in water resources research focused on enhancing (1) stakeholder engagement through better integration of scientific information with human systems for application to water resources policy and management; (2) watershed assessment, planning, management, and sustainability; (3) understanding of water use and adoption of conservation practices; and (4) private lands stewardship through assessing and improving conservation practice effectiveness and identifying/overcoming barriers to adoption.

Jiangqi Wen has served on the faculty of Plant and Soil Sciences Department at Oklahoma State University since June 30, 2021. He is a research professor in model legume resources and genetics. His current research is focused on the development and management a mutant collection in the model legume, Medicago truncatula, and genetic and genomic research on important agronomic traits in Medicago truncatula and alfalfa. Dr. Wen completed a five-year (2000-2005) postdoctoral research at Univertsity of Missouri-Columbia and a two-year STA Fellowship (1998-2000) at Hokkaido Agricultural Research Center in Sapporo, Japan. He received his PhD in Plant Physiology from Lanzhou  University in China in 1994. Prior to coming to the US, he held a faculty position at Lanzhou University in China from 1994 to 1998, with research and teaching responsibilities in plant physiology and molecular biology.

Yanqi Wu is a regents professor in grass breeding and genetics and holds the Meibergen Family Professorship in Plant Breeding. His current research is focused on the development of new cultivars, and genetic and genomic research on important agronomic traits in bermudagrass used for turf and forage, and switchgrass for bioenergy. Dr. Wu completed a two-year (2004-2006) postdoctoral research with USDA-ARS Plant Science Research Laboratory, Stillwater, Oklahoma. He received his PhD in Crop Science (Grass Breeding and Genetics) from Oklahoma State University in 2004. Prior to coming to the US, he held a faculty position at Sichuan Agricultural University in China from 1988 to 2000, with research and teaching responsibilities in Forage and Turfgrass Sciences. 

His major honors and awards

1.  2025 fellow of Crop Science Society of America.

2. The Crop Science Society of America, 2020 C5 Turfgrass Division Graduate Student Oral Competition 2nd place award to Shuhao Yu, for whom I served as major advisor.
3. The Crop Science Society of America, 2019 Society-wide Student Competition 1st place award to Ryan Schlobohm, for whom I served as major advisor, November 13, San Antonio, TX.
4. The Crop Science Society of America, 2019 C6 Forage Division Graduate Student Oral Competition 1st place award to Ryan Schlobohm, for whom I served as major advisor, November 13, San Antonio, TX.
5. The Association of Chinese Soil and Plant Scientists in North America, 2019 Excellent Graduate Student Award to Shuhao Yu, for whom I served as major advisor, November 11, San Antonio, TX.
6. The Crop Science Society of America, 2019 Undergraduate Student Crop Science Category 3rd place poster award to Carly Godwin, for whom I served as major advisor, November 13, San Antonio, TX.
7. 2018 Breeder's Cup Award presented to Dr. Yanqi Wu and Dr. Charles Taliaferro and 'Latitude 36' bermudagrass by Turfgrass Breeders Association, at the ASA-CSSA C5 annual meeting, Nov 07, Baltimore, MD. The Breeder's Cup is awarded to the turfgrass breeder and the cultivar (together) that best exemplify originality in the development of a turfgrass cultivar.
8. 2017 Tengtou Agricultural Science Award of American Society of Agronomy. ASA, CSSA, and SSSA International Annual Meetings. Oct 22-26, Tampa, FL.
9. 2017 Sarkeys Distinguished Professor Award of Oklahoma State University, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, September 29, 2017.
10. 2015 Patent award for 'Latitude 36' turf bermudagrass. US Patent NO: PP24271 P3. Oklahoma State University. 
11. 2014 Recognition for Proprietary Technologies. 'NorthBridge' turf bermudagrass. US Patent NO: PP24116 P3. Oklahoma State University. 
12. 2013 Recognition for Proprietary Technologies. 'Cimarron' switchgrass. U.S. Patent No.: 8,278,500 B2. Oklahoma State University. 
13. 2012 Recognition for Proprietary Technologies. Licensing of Production Rights Associated with 'Latitude 36' bermudagrass. Oklahoma State University Office of Intellectual Property Rights. 
14. 2012 Recognition for Proprietary Technologies. Licensing of Production Rights Associated with 'NorthBridge' bermudagrass. Oklahoma State University Office of Intellectual Property Rights. 
15. 2011 OSU DASNR James A. Whatley Award of Meritorious Research.
16. 2011 USDA NIFA Partnership Award.
17. 2010 Early Career Scientist Award of the US National Plant Breeders Association.
18. 2010 American Society of Agronomy A04 Education Materials Award of Excellence Certificates for Switchgrass Production Guide for Oklahoma. 
19. 2010 Recognitions for Proprietary Technologies. Licensing of Production Rights Associated with 'Goodwell' bermudagrass and 'Cimarron' switchgrass. Oklahoma State University Office of Intellectual Property Rights. Co-Inventors.
20. 2008 Inventor Recognition Award of Oklahoma State University.
21. 2003 Second Place Award in the graduate student poster competition of the C5 Division (Turfgrass Science) of the Crop Science Society of America.
22. 2003 Dale Weibel Memorial Graduate Scholarship of Plant and Soil Science Department, Oklahoma State University.

Dr. Liuling Yan is a Regents Professor and the endowed Dillon and Lois Hodges Professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at Oklahoma State University (OSU). He joined OSU in 2006 following his postdoctoral research and role as a project scientist at the University of California, Davis, where he made landmark contributions by cloning three vernalization genes in wheat: VRN1 (Yan et al., PNAS, 2003), VRN2 (Yan et al., Science, 2004), and VRN3 (Yan et al., PNAS, 2006, featured as a cover story).

At OSU, Dr. Yan has mapped and cloned numerous genes associated with key agronomic traits, including vernalization duration, resistance to diseases and insects, nitrogen use efficiency, and grain yield. Notable discoveries from his lab in the past 5 years include mDES1, a semi-dominant NLR allele causing whole-seedling necrosis (Plant Physiol., 2021); TaOGT1, a regulator of flowering time in winter wheat (Nature Commun., 2021); and TaCol-B5, which enhances grain yield by approximately 12% in field conditions (Science, 2022). The Science article, titled “TaCol-B5 modifies spike architecture and enhances grain yield in wheat,” represents a significant advancement in crop yield improvement.

Dr. Yan’s functional gene research has directly contributed to the development of 26 wheat varieties released by the Oklahoma Wheat Improvement Team. His achievements have been recognized with multiple honors:

      2011. USDA Secretary's Honor Award.

      2012. James A. Whatley Award for Meritorious Service in Agricultural Sciences, OSU.

      2015. “Staff of Life” Award, Oklahoma Wheat Commission.

      2016. Sarkeys Distinguished Professor Award, OSU.

      2019. “Master of the Code” Award, Oklahoma Genetics, Inc.

      2024. Regents Distinguished Research Award, OSU.