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Tsai Acting Director of Plant Biotech Center
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Chung-Jui Tsai (pronounced John-Ray Sigh) has been named the acting director of Michigan Tech?s Plant Biotechnology Research Center, Dean of Forest Resources and Environmental Science Glenn Mroz has announced.
Tsai, an associate professor, fills the post previously held by Professor Vincent Chiang, who recently left MTU to accept a position at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
Tsai is noted for her work in molecular physiology, functional genomics, metabolic profiling and lignin biosynthesis. Lignin must be removed from wood as part of the paper-making process. Tsai has worked to develop low-lignin trees, which would be less expensive to pulp and would also reduce the pollution associated with the pulp and paper industry.
She has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on 10 grants totalling $3.15 million, including a $2 million award from the Michigan Life Sciences Corridor Fund.
She has recently been invited to be a member of the International Poplar Genome Steering Committee, a group that assists in coordinating the Department of Energy's poplar genome sequencing effort with research worldwide. She has published widely, including six book chapters, and is co-inventor on three patents. She teaches courses and supervises graduate students in the area of plant biotechnology.
Tsai earned BS and MS degrees in Agriculture from National Taiwan University before coming to Michigan Tech for her PhD in Forest Science. In 1991 she became a research associate and held several research and faculty positions until her appointment as an associate professor in 2002.
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