1. Biology
  2. Subprograms
  3. Plant Sciences

Plant Sciences

tight focus photo of small green seedlings germinating in a petri dish held between the thumb and forefinger of a gloved hand

The Plant Sciences Subprogram (PS) of the Ph.D. in Biology is the most comprehensive of its kind in the New York area. The program is a long-standing joint initiative between CUNY and the New York Botanical Garden and consists of 40 doctoral faculty drawn from both institutions. Research areas include: biotechnology and metabolic engineering of plant biosynthetic pathways, systems biology, natural product biochemistry, medicinal plants and economic botany, signal transduction in plants, plant-microbial interactions, plant development, cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, ecology, biodiversity and systematics.

Program Requirements Admissions Requirements

Subprogram Chair

Renuka Sankaran
Lehman College
Email: rsankaran@gc.cuny.edu
Phone: 718-960-8983

advisory Committee

Chair: Renuka Sankaran

Faculty

Edward Kennelly
Lehman College
Edward.kennelly@lehman.cuny.edu

Eleanor Wurtzel
Lehman College
eleanore.wurtzel@lehman.cuny.edu

Lawrence Kelly
New York Botanical Garden
lkelly@gc.cuny.edu

Fabian Michelangeli
New York Botanical Garden
fabian@nybg.org

Louis Bradbury
York College
LBradbury@york.cuny.edu

Andrew Reinman (alternate)
Advanced Science Research Center 
areinmann@gc.cuny.edu

Students

Lydia Paradiso—Student Representative to the Executive Committee
New York Botanical Garden

Gavin Duckett
Brooklyn College

Yi Zhao
Lehman College

Plant Sciences Faculty

Marilyn R. Gunner - Professor - profile photo

Marilyn Gunner

Professor

  • Biology

Professor

  • Biochemistry

Professor

  • Chemistry

Professor

  • Physics
Andrew Reinmann - Assistant Professor - profile photo

Andrew Reinmann

Assistant Professor

  • Earth and Environmental Sciences

Assistant Professor

  • Biology
Renuka Sankaran - Associate Professor - profile photo

Renuka Sankaran

Associate Professor

  • Biochemistry

Associate Professor

  • Biology
Ruth Stark - Distinguished Professor - profile photo

Ruth Stark

Distinguished Professor

  • Chemistry

Distinguished Professor

  • Biology

Distinguished Professor

  • Biochemistry

Distinguished Professor

  • Physics

Distinguished Professor

  • Nanoscience