Lirong Zeng promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure

Friday, May 20, 2016

Lirong Zeng is promoted to Associate Professor with tenure effective July 1, 2016.  He received a BS in Agronomy from the Hunan Agricultural University and a MS in Biochemistry from the Zhongshan (Sun Yat-Sen) University, China. In 2005 he earned his PhD in Molecular Plant Pathology from the Ohio State University.  He then did his postdoctoral research at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell University with Gregory B. Martin.  In 2009 he joined the faculty at University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where he served as an assistant professor in the Department of Biology for nearly five years. Lirong joined the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in July, 2014. His research has been focused on the identification and characterization of genes and signal transduction pathways involved in plant immunity against microbial pathogens, particularly the roles and mechanism by which the ubiquitination system regulates plant defense responses. His long-term goal is to elucidate and eventually manipulate for crop improvement the key molecular mechanisms that plants use to defend themselves against different biotic stresses. Lirong has taught five undergraduate- and/or graduate-level courses and has provided services to numerous local and professional committees, including serving as panel member twice for the NSF Plant Symbiosis, Defense, and Self-Recognition program and as international reviewer for grant proposals of the European Research Area-Coordinating Action in Plant Sciences (ERA-CAPS). He has to date mentored five postdoctoral associates, two visiting scholars, eight graduate and fifteen undergraduate students in research. He and his wife, are the proud parents of two children.