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.