Catherine Simpson, Ph.D.

Personal Information

Catherine Simpson is an assistant professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences in the College of Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources. She earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees from Texas A&M University-Kingsville studying Soil Science and Plant and Soil Science with a focus in chemical fate and transport in soils. Catherine completed her Ph.D. in Horticulture at Texas A&M University in 2013 studying abiotic stress physiology in citrus and watermelon crops. She then went on to a postdoc studying the relationships between tree physiology and insect population dynamics. Catherine started an assistant professor position at Texas A&M University-Kingsville in 2015 and pursued diverse research on citrus production, physiology, and sustainability during her time there. In 2019, she accepted a position at TTU as assistant professor of Horticulture and Sustainability.

Her previous research expertise includes: plant abiotic stress physiology, nutrition, water use efficiency, sustainable management practices, plant-soil-water relationships, remote sensing in perennial systems, and citrus physiology. Her current research spans the multifaceted areas that bridge horticulture and urban and peri-urban environments. These projects include water resource and soil sustainability, people-plant interactions, plants for human health, plant nutritional quality and phytochemical composition, functional plant products, and horticultural therapy.

CV

Research Interests

• Horticultural sustainability
• Water conservation and alternative water sources in protected production systems.
• Passive and active effects of plants on different populations.
• Therapeutic horticulture
• Plant stress physiology
• Plant nutritional quality and its impacts on humans.