Pankaj Trivedi, an international expert in microbial ecology and soil biology, has been named an Associate Professor in Plant & Soil Microbiome Analysis within Texas Tech’s Department of Plant & Soil Science, according to officials within the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources. He officially stepped into his new research post on Mar. 15.
Trivedi will be working within one of Davis College's leading scientific teams - the Institute of Genomics for Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance. He is expected to develop an internationally recognized program of microbiome research linked to the use of genomic tools, combining fundamental research and education with applications to improve the environmental stress tolerance of crops, mainly but not limited to cotton, sorghum, or other crops relevant to West Texas agriculture.
“Through building TTU’s research capability in integrative microbiome research, my research program will establish knowledge and evidence to enable management and usage of complex microbial communities in contexts relevant to farm productivity, sustainable development, environmental protection, and food security,” Trivedi said. “We will employ data-driven biology and systems-based approaches and the computational innovations to understand and predict the dynamics and systems properties of the microbiome and microbiome-host or environment interactions.”
One of Trivedi’s primary goals at Texas Tech is to develop advanced biotechnological methods to control, modify, or engineer the plant and soil microbiome to improve crop yields and plant resilience to changing environments.
Prior to joining the Texas Tech faculty, Trivedi served as an assistant and associate professor in Colorado State University’s Department of Agricultural Biology. Earlier he worked as a research fellow with the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment with Western Sydney University in Australia, a postdoctoral research associate within the Citrus Research & Education Center in the University of Florida’s Department of Microbiology & Cell Sciences, and a young scientist at the GB Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment & Development in Almora, India.
Trivedi received his bachelor’s degree in industrial microbiology from Kurukshetra University in Haryana, India; and his master’s degree in microbiology from Gurukul Kangri University in Haridwar, India. Trivedi earned his doctorate in soil microbiology from Kumaun University in Uttarakhand, India.
He received the Outstanding Contributions to Research & Scholarship Award (2022) and the Excellence in Collaborative Research Award (2024) from Colorado State University. Trivedi was named Clarivate Highly Cited (HiCi) Researcher in 2023 and 2024. He is a founding member and a leader in the Global Initiative of Sustainable Agriculture and Environment and the Global Crop Microbiome Project. Professional activities include service as a senior editor with the Journal of Sustainable Agriculture & Environment and editorial board member for FEMS Microbial Ecology.
He is a member of the International Society for Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions, American Phytopathological Society, International Society for Microbial Ecology, The Association of Australian Cotton Scientist, American Society for Microbiology and the American Geophysical Union.
Led by Luis Rafael Herrera-Estrella, the high-profile IGCAST research group examines how plants adapt to thrive in the presence of environmental stresses such as extreme heat and cold, drought and in the presence of brackish water sources. Herrera-Estrella’s arrival at Texas Tech was made possible by a $5 million grant from the State of Texas Governor's University Research Initiative and matched by the university to bring the best and brightest researchers to Texas.
IGCAST was established in 2020 with a mission of conducting top-ranked research and graduate education on the use of functional and population genomics to understand the molecular mechanisms that determine resilience of crops and related wild species to adverse environmental stresses in the era of climate change.
The research group aims at integrating an interdisciplinary team of scientists to conduct internationally competitive, multidisciplinary research to study physiological, biochemical and molecular mechanisms and plant architecture underlying resistance to environmental stresses, contributing to the development of sustainable agriculture.
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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