Son Tran, Ph.D.

Background

Lam-Son Phan Tran is an expert in Biological Sciences and Biotechnology. He obtained his M.Sc in Biotechnology in 1994 and Ph.D in Biological Sciences in 1997, from Szent Istvan University (formerly Godollo University of Agricultural Sciences), Hungary. After doing his postdoctoral research on Bacillus subtilis at the National Food Research Institute (1999-2000) and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology of Japan (2001), in October 2001, he joined the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) as a JIRCAS fellow to work on the functional analyses of transcription factors and osmosensors in Arabidopsis plants under environmental stresses. In August 2007, he moved to the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA as a Senior Research Scientist working on gene discovery for development of drought-tolerant soybean plants. In January 2009, he joined RIKEN Plant Science Center (currently RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science), Japan as Unit Leader of the Signaling Pathway Research Unit (currently Stress Adaptation Research Unit) studying (i) roles of plant growth regulators and their interactions in environmental stress responses, and (ii) translational genomics of legume crops aiming to enhance their performance under normal growth and environmental stress conditions. From September 2020, he joined Texas Tech’s College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources newest scientific team - the Institute of Genomics for Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance, as a Professor with Texas Tech’s Department of Plant and Soil Science.

Research Interests

Dr. Tran’s research programs broadly focus on regulatory networks and crosstalk among signaling molecules in plant responses to environmental stresses, as well as translational genomics for improvement of crop productivity in the era of global climate change. His basic and applied research programs will contribute to some of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, which include maintaining sustainable production of crops for food, biomass and industrial uses.

Related Links

• Curriculum vitae
• Institute for Genomics of Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance (IGCAST)
• RIKEN
• RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science
• The American Society of Plant Biologists
• The Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists