Krishna Jagadish, a noted crop physiologist from Kansas State University, has been named the new Thornton Distinguished Chair and Professor of Forage Science in Texas Tech University's Department of Plant & Soil Science. He will be the Director of the Texas Coalition for Sustainable Integrated Systems Research Program (TeCSIS) and Coordinator of the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation (TAWC). Jagadish officially stepped into his new research and teaching role on Mar. 15. 

“Dr. Jagadish is an internationally recognized scientist who has fundamentally transformed our understanding of heat and drought stress in grasses,” said Glen Ritchie, chair of Tech's Department of Plant & Soil Science. “He is an innovator who will make an immediate impact at Texas Tech.”

One of Jagadish's primary goals at Texas Tech is to identify forage-based cropping systems responses to drought stress, as well as to develop an integrated approach to forage production that includes abiotic stress resilience and management strategies, as well as the needs of stakeholders throughout the region and the world. 

His research program broadly focuses on optimizing the crop-forage-livestock systems for Southern High Plains, to sustain economic benefits and enhance environmental sustainability. His goal is to develop a dynamic research and training program on forage-based cropping systems that will be highly recognized both nationally and internationally. 

Established in 1980, the Thornton endowment has a research emphasis on examining methods of integrating forage production and livestock grazing into local cropping systems to increase the efficiency of water use in agriculture while maintaining or enhancing profitability.

Prior to joining the Texas Tech faculty, Jagadish served as professor in Kansas State's Department of Agronomy. He also worked as a post-doctoral fellow, scientist I & II and deputy division head with the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.  

Jagadish received his bachelor's degree in agriculture from the University of Agriculture Sciences in Bangalore, India, and his master's degree in agronomy from the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad, India. His doctorate in molecular and physiological dissection of heat tolerance during anthesis in rice is from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. 

Recent honors for Jagadish include the Kansas State Gamma Sigma Delta Outstanding Research Award (2021), International Fellow of the Indian Society of Plant Physiology (2021), and the Association for Agricultural Scientists of Indian Origin Outstanding Young Agricultural Scientist Award (2015). He is a member of the Crop Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, and the North American Plant Phenotyping Network. He currently serves as associate editor for Field Crops Research and served as associate editor for the Agronomy Journal. 

Texas Tech's Department of Plant & Soil Science is a comprehensive academic unit, conducting research and offering coursework and programs in several areas of plant and soil science. It has 29 full-time faculty members, and a student body consisting of approximately 150 undergraduate and 120 graduate students. Some of those students are enrolled in the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources distance education program.

CONTACT: Glen Ritchie, Department Chair, Department of Plant & Soil Science, Texas Tech University at (806) 742- 4325 or glen.ritchie@ttu.edu

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