Department History

In 1877, the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station was established, the second such station in the nation. Located in a chemistry laboratory at the University in Chapel Hill, it was primarily a facility for testing fertilizers. The first botanical work was performed by George Warnecke, who was testing of the germination of seeds.

• 1881 – The experiment station moved to the Agriculture Building in Raleigh. Botanical work was extended to include identification and study of forage grasses.
• 1885 – The experiment station acquired its first experimental farmland, a tract bounded by the then state fairgrounds and the present Hillsborough Street, Brooks Avenue, and Clark Avenue. Field studies of various grasses were established.
• 1888 – After the passage of the Hatch Act in 1887, which provided federal funds to state experiment stations, botanical work was expanded by the employment of Michael Gerald McCarthy as the first botanist. McCarthy had previously collected plant specimens for the station.
• 1889 – Established by law in 1887, the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts opened. One of the first five faculty members was Wilbur Fisk Massey, Professor of Horticulture, Arboriculture, and Plant Biology, and Horticulturist of the experiment station. Courses he offered included morphology, anatomy, physiology, classification, cryptogamic botany, histology, plant pathology, and paleobotany. Plant Biology, along with all other parts of the college, was housed in one building, now Holladay Hall.
• 1889 – McCarthy published the first of a number of bulletins on the testing of seeds.
• 1890 – McCarthy published the first of several bulletins on grasses.
• 1890 – After the passage of the federal Second Morrill Act, Massey taught courses to African-American students at Shaw University.
• 1891 – McCarthy published the first of a number of bulletins on plant diseases; his work was the first in plant pathology at the experiment station.
• 1892 – Massey published a botanical paper on the Sabal palmetto.
• 1894 – Massey served as chairman of the college committee to oversee graduate (master’s degree) work.
• 1895 – McCarthy played a key role in establishing one of the earliest cooperative research arrangements. For the experimental study of fruits and other plants, the land was obtained at Southern Pines. The North Carolina Horticultural Society managed the operation, the experiment station provided analyses and other services, and a fertilizer company (the German Kali Works) paid the expenses.
• 1895 – Massey published a special bulletin in both English and French to assist the Waldensians of Valdese, members of a religious sect who had immigrated to North Carolina from Europe.
• 1896 – Massey’s activities in botany and horticulture exclusively occupied newly- built Primrose Hall, which included five attached greenhouses.
• 1897 – McCarthy’s work was instrumental in the establishment of a national seed testing standard by the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations.
• 1897 – With political upheaval in the state following the election of 1896, McCarthy was summarily dismissed. Botanical work at the experiment station was placed under the direction of Massey, with a new assistant botanist, Charles Walter Hyams. Seed testing was discontinued, as was the cooperative research at Southern Pines.
• 1898 – Hyams published a bulletin on medicinal plants of North Carolina.
• 1899 – After collecting specimens widely, Hyams published a bulletin on the flora of North Carolina.

• 1900 – Hyams published a bulletin on edible mushrooms of North Carolina.
• 1900 – For the first time, botany courses were listed separately from horticulture in the college catalog. They included morphology, anatomy, physiology, and systematics.
• 1901 – Massey resigned his professorship at the college, but remained as horticulturist of the experiment station. Hyams was dismissed as an assistant botanist. Dr. Frank Lincoln Stevens, a plant pathologist, was appointed instructor in biology, the first college faculty member to hold the Ph.D. degree.
• 1902 – Stevens became Professor of Biology, later Professor of Botany and Vegetable Pathology, in the college and Biologist of the experiment station. He expanded experimental work in plant pathology and soil microbiology, which continued during his tenure. For the first time, courses in plant ecology and economic botany were offered.
• 1900’s – Assistants or instructors under Stevens during this period, all plant pathologists or bacteriologists, were Charles Wigg Martin, James Clarence Temple, John Galentine Hall, Thomas Dotterer Eason, Percy Leigh Gainey, Bascombe Britt Higgins, Warren Carney Norton, Guy Wilson West, and Thomas Barnes Stancel.
• 1902 – Adeline (Mrs. Frank L.) Stevens served as an instructor in biology, the first female faculty member at the college.
• 1903 – Stevens initiated research on a newly discovered plant disease, the Granville wilt of tobacco. This program was extended at the experiment station until 1918.
• 1905 – Botany became housed in Agricultural Hall, now Patterson Hall.
• 1910 – Stevens and Hall published an important textbook of plant pathology, Diseases of Economic Plants.
• 1912 – Stevens resigned. He was succeeded as Professor of Botany and Vegetable Pathology by Harry Rascoe Fulton, a plant pathologist, who continued the major investigations begun by Stevens.
• 1910’s – Assistants or instructors under Fulton during this period, all plant pathologists or bacteriologists, were Warren Carney Norton, Duane B. Rosenkrans, J. R. Winston, Everett Hanson Cooper, Harry Curtis Young, and Richard Oliver Cromwell. Stephen Cole Bruner, a special agent of the Bureau of Plant Industry, was also assigned for cooperative work in plant pathology.
• 1916 – Fulton resigned. He was succeeded as Professor of Botany and Plant Pathology by Dr. Frederick Adolphus Wolf, a mycologist and plant pathologist. During his tenure investigations were carried out on Granville wilt, a wildfire of tobacco, trembles of livestock, clover stem rust, soybean diseases, seed treatments, dewberry anthracnose, leafscorch of strawberry, and bacterial plant pathogens. Courses in mycology, bacteriology, and plant physiology were emphasized.
• 1910’s – Assistants or instructors under Wolf, all plant pathologists or bacteriologists, were Everett Hanson Cooper, Richard Oliver Cromwell, Samuel George Lehman, and Donald Folsom.
• 1917 – The name of the institution was changed to North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering.
• 1917– The first honorary doctoral degree given by the college was conferred on Massey.
• 1919 – Wolf gave up all college teaching but remained with the experiment station. Dr. Bertram Whittier Wells, a specialist on insect galls of plants, became Professor of Botany and head of the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology. He was joined on the faculty by Ivan Vaughan Detweiler Shunk. Courses taught by Wells and Shunk included general botany, plant physiology, agricultural bacteriology, systematic botany, and poisonous plants.

• 1920 – Wells encountered the Big Savannah, a vegetational entity near Burgaw, and was stimulated by it to change his research interest to plant community ecology.
• 1921 – Alexander Camboell Martin joined the faculty as an instructor, later assistant professor. He resigned in 1926 and later became an authority on the identification of seeds in the stomachs of wild animals.
• 1922 – Wells and zoologist Zeno Payne Metcalf engaged in a widely publicized public debate on evolution with William Riley, an anti-evolutionist.
• 1923 – Schools were established within the college. Botany became part of both the School of Agriculture and the School of General Science, later the School of Science and Business. In the latter school, the departments of botany and zoology jointly offered the first undergraduate curriculum in biology.
• 1924 – The first MS. degree in Botany other than plant pathology or bacteriology was awarded to Alexander Camboell Martin for a study of a plant gall.
• 1924 – Wells published a survey of the major plant communities of North Carolina. He subsequently pursued numerous investigations of coastal-plain, old-field, mountain-bald, and salt-spray communities. Shunk collaborated in a number of these studies as well as conducting his own microbiological research.
• 1924 – Dr. Louis Jerome Pessin, a plant physiologist, was added to the faculty. He was dismissed and replaced in 1925 by Dr. Donald Benton Anderson, who later conducted research and published numerous papers on plant cell wall structure, water relations, and chemical sucker control in tobacco.
• 1925 – Wells was one of the leaders in the fight against anti-evolution legislation in the general assembly. The controversy continued for another two years.
• 1925 – The first undergraduate degree in biology earned by a botanist was awarded to Larry Alston Whitford.
• 1926 – Whitford joined the department faculty. A phycologist, he pursued research on fresh-water algae, publishing numerous papers and becoming known worldwide.
• 1932 – Upon consolidation of the University of North Carolina system, the institution became North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering of the University of North Carolina.
• 1932 -Wells published his unique book, The Natural Gardens of North Carolina. It was reprinted in 1967 and a revised edition prepared in 2002.
• 1933 – Wells served as president of the North Carolina Academy of Science.
• 1934 – Wells chaired an important college committee on revision of the institutional curriculum following university system consolidation.
• 1935 – Dr. Murray Fife Buell joined the department faculty. Leaving for Rutgers University in 1946, he had an eminent career as a plant ecologist.
• 1936 – The first Ph.D. degree in Botany was awarded, technically through the graduate school in Chapel Hill, to Andrew George Lang, a student of Anderson.
• 1936 – Anderson became director of the Cotton Fiber Research Laboratory, a cooperative program of the college and the United States Department of Agriculture.
• 1939 – With Bernard S. Meyer, Anderson published Plant Physiology, A Textbook For Colleges, which became a classic. A second edition was produced in 1952.

• 1940 – The department moved from Patterson Hall to Winston Hall.
• 1943 – Because of World War II, faculty in botany, zoology, entomology, and economics were organized into a Department of Geography. They taught a comprehensive course in that subject to military students.
• 1943 – Wells served as president of the Southern Appalachian Botanical Club.
• 1945 – Over the years the plant pathologists on the faculty had become more numerous than the other botanists, so a Plant Pathology Section was established within the department under the leadership of James Herbert Jensen.
• 1946 – With the boom in post-World-War-II student enrollment the department faculty was enlarged by the addition of Ernest Aubry Ball (anatomy), William Basil Fox (taxonomy), and Herbert Temple Scofield (physiology). The following year Robert Kenneth Godfrey (taxonomy) replaced Buell.
• 1940’s – The introductory Botany course, which for years had been taught in a traditional separate lecture and laboratory format, was changed. Small classes were now taught by almost all faculty members in a combined lecture-laboratory arrangement using the Socratic method.
• 1946 – Whitford was one of the eleven founding members of the Phycological Society of America.
• 1947 – Anderson served as president of the American Society of Plant Physiologists.
• 1949 – Wells relinquished his duties as department head but continued as an active faculty member until 1954. Anderson was appointed as his successor.

• 1950 – The Division of Biological Sciences was established with Anderson as head. It included four, later five, faculties, one of which was Botany with Scofield as head.
• 1950 – Anderson was named head of the graduate school as associate dean and, in 1957, dean.
• 1950 – The first Ph.D. degrees in Botany given through the graduate school in Raleigh were awarded to Willie Mack Dugger and Albert Boyd Pack (physiologists).
• 1950’s – A number of faculty changes occurred. Harold J. Evans (biochemistry, 1950) was added and later replaced by Joseph Stephen Kahn (biochemistry, 1961). Shunk died (1951); he was replaced by Alfred Francis Borg (bacteriology, 1953) and later by Gerald Hugh Elkan (bacteriology, 1958). Fox was accidentally killed (1952); he was replaced by Robert Lynch Wilbur (taxonomy, 1953) and later by James Walker Hardin (taxonomy, 1957). Added in 1954 were Ernest Oscar Beal (taxonomy) and William Alexander Brun (physiology); the latter was replaced in 1957 by James Richard Troyer (physiology). Wells retired and was replaced by Phillippe Francois Bourdeau (ecology, 1954) and later by Arthur Wells Cooper (ecology, 1958)
• 1951 – Anderson received the O. Max Gardner Award of the University of North Carolina system, the first given to a faculty member at North Carolina State College.
• 1952 – The department moved to the newly constructed Gardner Hall.
• 1953 – The first female student to earn a MS. degree in Botany was Eloise Johansen. The second was Elizabeth Jean Chappell in 1966.
• 1953 – Anderson served as president of the North Carolina Academy of Science.
• 1956 – Heinz Seltmann of the USDA (tobacco physiology) became affiliated with the department. This arrangement was later expanded by the addition of other USDA personnel: Harold Edward Pattee (peanut physiology, 1963), Ralph E. Williamson (water relations, 1963), and Donald W. DeJong (tobacco physiology, 1968).
• 1956 – Anderson served in Washington as an administrator in the National Science Foundation.
• 1957 – Whitford served as president of the Phycological Society of America.
• 1958 – Anderson left the college when he was named provost, later vice president, of the University of North Carolina system in Chapel Hill. The Division of Biological Sciences was abolished and its faculties became departments. The department was named the Department of Plant Biology and Bacteriology with Scofield as head. The bacteriology faculty group was subsequently increased by the addition of James B. Evans (1960), Walter Jerome Dobrogosz (1962), Frank Bradley Armstrong (1962), and Jerome John Perry (1964).

• 1960 – An academic tenure system and procedures were established for faculty ranks at the college.
• 1961 – An introductory course in general biology was introduced, as a consequence of which the elementary botany course was reduced from two semesters to one and reverted to a traditional lecture and separate laboratory format. Later an undergraduate curriculum in biological science was established and from time to time faculty members were added in Botany with primary responsibility in this activity.
• 1962 – The Institute of Biological Sciences, which included Botany and Bacteriology along with four other departments, was established to coordinate research and curricula.
• 1963 – Scofield resigned the headship in order to work in the cooperative university-AID project in Peru. He was succeeded as head by Glenn Ray Noggle in 1964.
• 1960’s – A number of faculty changes occurred. Royall T. Moore (mycology) joined the department in 1964 and established a facility which became the Electron Microscope Center. Roger Carl Fites (physiology) was added in 1965 and Charles Eugene Anderson (anatomy) in 1966. Whitford retired in 1968 and was replaced by Harold E. Schlichting (phycology). Also in 1968 Ball and Beal resigned; the latter was replaced by Stephen D. Koch (taxonomy). Additions in 1969 were Udo Blum (ecology), Ernest Davis Seneca (ecology), and Cecil Gerald Van Dyke (mycology).
• 1963 – The college awarded Wells the honorary degree Doctor of Science.
• 1964 – The School of Agriculture became the School, later the College, of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
• 1964 – Whitford served as president of the North Carolina Academy of Science.
• 1965 – The institution became North Carolina State University at Raleigh.
• 1965 – Department faculty moved to two new departments: Microbiology (Evans, Elkan, Dobrogosz, and Perry) and Biochemistry (Armstrong and Kahn). The department became the Department of Botany.
• 1965 – The Southeastern Plant Environment Laboratory (Phytotron) was initiated with Robert Jack Downs as Director and Professor of Plant Biology.
• 1966 – D. B. Anderson relinquished administrative duties but continued teaching on three campuses of the university system until retiring in 1972.
• 1967 – The introductory botany course was reorganized to use the audio-tutorial format and a suitable laboratory was outfitted. In 1978 formal lectures were reintroduced, with laboratory sessions remaining audio-tutorial. In 1982 the course again became wholly audio-tutorial with almost all faculty members serving as tutors. The course reverted to a traditional lecture-laboratory format in 1986.
• 1967 – The first female student to earn a Ph.D. degree in Botany was Yoon Kim (phycology).
• 1967 – What later became the Martha Sue Sebastian Memorial Award for teaching by graduate students was initiated by the department.
• 1968 – The undergraduate curriculum in Botany was revised. Courses required of majors were plant life, introduction to ecology, plant diversity, systematic botany, and plant physiology, as well as courses in related disciplines.
• 1968 – The first female student to earn an undergraduate degree in Botany was Jane Green McNeary.
• 1968 – With special support from the state legislature a cooperative program of research on coastal ecology was initiated by the Departments of Botany and Soil Science. Botanists involved were Cooper and Seneca.
• 1969 – Supported jointly by the EPA and USDA, a research program on the effects of air pollution on plants was established at the university with Walter Webb Heck as Director and Professor of Plant Biology. The EPA- supported research later moved elsewhere, but the USDA component remained.
• 1969 – The first African-American student to earn an MS. degree in Botany was Augustus McIver Witherspoon. He was also the first to receive the Ph.D. degree in 1971.
• 1969 – Whitford, with George J. Schumaker, published the first edition of what became A Manual of Fresh-Water Algae, a work which became widely used as a textbook and reference.

• 1971 – The Institute of Biological Sciences was abolished.
• 1971 – The first African-American faculty member in Botany was Augustus McIver Witherspoon (phycology). In 1973 the second was Tommy Elmer Wynn (physiology).
• 1970’s – A number of other faculty changes occurred. Scofield retired in 1972. Schlichting and Koch resigned in 1973; the latter was replaced in 1974 by Jon Marshall Stucky (taxonomy). In 1974 James Fredric Reynolds (ecology) was added, as was Robert Lee Beckmann (taxonomy). While he was chancellor of the university, Joab L. Thomas (1976-81) was also Professor of Plant Biology.
• 1972 – The first African-American student to earn an undergraduate degree in Botany was Carl Ray Barnes.
• 1972 – The Cell and Tissue Culture Laboratory was established in the department and Ralph Lionel Mott became its director. The laboratory won research grants from government agencies and industrial companies and supported a number of graduate students and postdoctoral associates.
• 1972 – Cooper became Assistant Director for Program Development in the North Carolina Department of Natural and Economic Resource Development, serving on leave there until 1976 when he returned to the university in the School of Forest Resources with a joint appointment in Plant Biology. During his absence the teaching of courses in ecology and plant geography was done by visiting professors: John Nemeth, Anthony Dvorak, Harriet Barclay, and Charles Racine. The ecology position vacated by Cooper was permanently filled in 1976 by Thomas Ralph Wentworth.
• 1973 – Supported by a sizable grant from the Carolina Power and Light Company, a research program was established to study the influence of the Brunswick nuclear power plant on the ecology of salt marshes in the area. Faculty members involved in this effort, which continued until 1980, were Noggle, Seneca, and Blum, along with a number of students and research associates.
• 1976 – Noggle, along with George John Fritz, authored a widely used textbook, Introductory Plant Physiology, a second edition of which was produced in 1983.
• 1977 – Noggle resigned his administrative duties and was replaced as department head by Jerome Philip Miksche. Noggle served as Business Executive of the American Society of Plant Physiologists, retiring from that position and from the University in 1979.
• 1977 – The first African-American female to earn a Ph.D. degree in Botany was Carol Janerette.
• 1977 – The department staged a special commemorative dinner and ceremonies to honor five living men who had served as its head.
• 1979 – Newly constructed Bostian Hall included teaching facilities for the department.
• 1979 – The first female professorial faculty members in Botany were Wendy Farmer Boss (physiology) and Judith Fey Thomas (anatomy), who also became Assistant Director of the Phytotron.
• 1979 – Witherspoon was named Assistant Dean of the Graduate School. He later became Associate Dean (1982) and Associate Provost of the University (1989).

• 1980’s – A number of faculty changes occurred.
• In 1983 – William Scott Chilton (natural product chemistry) joined the faculty. In 1986 JoAnn M. Burkholder (fresh-water ecology) was added and William F. Thompson (molecular botany) became University Research Professor. James Earl Mickle (paleobotany) and Rebecca S. Boston (molecular botany) joined in 1987. In 1989 Wynn died.
• 1981 – An auditorium in Bostian Hall was named in honor of Wells.
• 1983 – The Gourman Report, a rating of graduate programs in American universities, ranked the department 24th among 41 institutions with graduate programs in botany.
• 1984 – The first African-American female to earn an M.S. degree in botany was Deogratias Artis.
• 1985 – Miksche resigned. He was succeeded as department head by Seneca.
• 1988 – The holiday Snowflake Contest was begun.

• 1991 – The toxic fish-killing organism Pfiesteria piscicida was first characterized by Burkholder and collaborators. A second species, P. shumwayae was found in 2000.
• 1991 – The department established the Larry A. Whitford Undergraduate Scholarship/Graduate Fellowship.
• 1991 – The holiday publication, The Snowflake, was initiated. It later became The Hat and Tie, and still later The Leaf Litter.
• 1993 – Downs retired as director of the phytotron and was succeeded by Thomas.
• 1993 – The Gourman Report ranked the department twelfth among 40 institutions with graduate programs in Botany.
• 1994 – Seneca retired. Eric Davies (physiology) replaced him as department head in 1995.
• 1990’s – A number of faculty changes occurred. Retiring were Mott (1993), Witherspoon (1994), Troyer (1995), C. E. Anderson (1995), Heck (1995), and Hardin (1996). Added were Dominique Robertson (molecular botany, 1992), Nina Stromgren Allen (cell biology, 1995), and Leigh A. Johnson (taxonomy, 1997). Johnson resigned in 1999 and was replaced by Qiu Yun (Jenny) Xiang (taxonomy) in 2000. The hiring of Robertson initiated formal connection of Plant Biology with the NCSU Biotechnology teaching program.
• 1996 – Mickle served as president of the North Carolina Academy of Science.
• 1998 – Beckmann received the Board of Governors Award for excellence in teaching, the highest teaching award given by the UNC system. He also received the USDA South Region Award for excellence in teaching.
• 1999 – Davies resigned his administrative duties but remained as a professor. He was succeeded by Margaret E. Daub (plant pathology), the first female department head of botany.

• 2000 – The Cellular and Molecular Imaging Facility opened with Nina Allen as director.
• 2000 – The department received one of the first two Departmental Awards for Teaching and Learning Excellence given by the University.
• 2000 – An extension position was established in the department with the hiring of Alexander Krings as herbarium curator with responsibilities for extension plant identification.
• 2000’s – A number of faculty changes occurred. Retiring were Fites (2000), Blum (2002), and Chilton (2004). Added were Candace H. Haigler (cell wall physiology, 2003), Richard L. Blanton (Director of the University Honors Program, 2003), William A. Hoffman (ecology, 2004), Heike Winter-Sederoff (physiology, 2005), and Deyu Xie (natural products, 2005).
• 2000– Barbara Thakor joins the department as a Visiting Assistant Professor with responsibilities for teaching courses.  Over 11 years she taught BO 403, BO200 and BO200 Honors, and developed an evolutionary biology course.
• 2001 – Boss was named a William Neal Reynolds Professor.
• 2001– Jenny Xiang (systematics) joins the faculty as an Assistant Professor replacing Leigh Johnson
• 2002 – The Center for Applied Ecology was established with JoAnn Burkholder as director.
• 2002– Margo Daub is named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
• 2002 – Vulpia, Contributions from the N. C. State University Herbarium (ISSN 1540-3599) was started as an online peer-reviewed publication of Botanical keys, detailed nomenclatural notes, discussions, and floristic notes. In 2005 it was added, by invitation, to the Directory of Open Access Journals maintained by Lund University in Sweden.
• 2003– Niki Robertson is promoted to Full Professor.
• 2004 – Christopher S. Brown, a research professor of plant biology and director of space programs at NC State University, served as president of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology.
• 2004 – JoAnn Burkholder named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
• 2004 – Scott Chilton retires and establishes the Chilton Undergraduate Research Endowment to fund undergraduate research in plant biology. Chilton passes away in fall 2004.
• 2004– Bill Hoffmann (ecology) is hired to replace Udo Blum.  Imara Perera (plant physiology), former postdoctoral researcher, is appointed Research Assistant Professor.
• 2005– Deyu Xie (phytochemistry) joins the department as an Assistant Professor, taking the position held by Scott Chilton. Heike Sederoff (plant physiology), former Research Director of the Plant Gravitational Genomics Program, is hired as an Assistant Professor. Sue Carson, Academic Coordinator in the NCSU Biotechnology Program, is appointed Teaching Assistant Professor.
• 2005 – Becky Boston was named a William Neal Reynolds Professor.
• 2005 – Nina Allen became chair of the NC State University faculty senate.
• 2005 – Boss, Boston, Daub, Robertson, and Thompson moved from Gardner Hall to facilities on the Centennial Campus.
• 2005– Chris Brown joins the NCSU Research Office and is appointed a tenured Full Professor in the Department.
• 2006 – Van Dyke received the Board of Governors Award for excellence in teaching.
• 2006– Jenny Xiang is promoted to Associate Professor.
• 2006 –  The department became the Department of Plant Biology.
• 2006 – Gerald Van Dyke retires.  His position is filled by Chad Jordan (plant development) who joins the department as a teaching assistant professor and undergraduate coordinator.
• 2007– Alexander Krings is appointed as Extension Assistant Professor.
• 2007 – Margo Daub is named a William Neal Reynolds Professor. Wendy Boss is named an Inaugural Fellow of the Association of Plant Biologists.
• 2007 – Eric Davies retires.
• 2008 – JoAnn Burkholder is named a William Neal Reynolds Professor.
• 2008– Nina Allen retires and is replaced by Marcela Rojas-Pierce (cell biology).
• 2008– Judy Thomas retires.  Carole Saravitz is appointed as the new Director of the Phytotron and as Research Assistant Professor in the Department.
• 2009– Becky Boston moves to an administrative position in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Research Office.
• 2009 – Xie awarded The Arthur C. Neish Young Investigator Award by the Phytochemistry Society of North America.
• 2009 – Burkholder receives the CALS/CNR Service to Society and the Environment award.
• 2009 – Marc Johnson (ecology) joins the department as an Assistant Professor.

• 2010 – Alexander Krings publishes Manual of the Vascular Flora of Nags Head Woods, Outer Banks, North Carolina (New York Botanical Garden Press).
• 2010– Larry Blanton (NCSU Executive Director of Academic Enhancement Programs) replaces Becky Boston as the Director of Graduate Programs for Plant Biology.
• 2010– Sue Carson is promoted to Teaching Associate Professor and is awarded the Alumni Association Outstanding Teacher Award.
• 2011– Udo Blum publishes Plant-Plant Allelopathic Interactions; Phenolic Acids, Cover Crops and Weed Emergence (Springer).
• 2011 – Marc Johnson wins American Society of Naturalists’ “Young Investigator” prize.
• 2011 – Chad Jordan receives both the NC State Outstanding Teacher Award and the Alumni Association Outstanding Teacher Award.
• 2011– Deyu Xie is promoted to Associate Professor.  Imara Perera is promoted to Teaching Associate Professor.
• 2011 – Alexander Krings elected President of the Society of Herbarium Curators for 2012-2014.
• 2011 – Terri Long (physiology) and Sirius Li (metabolic engineering) join the department as assistant professors. Sirius Li establishes a connection between the Department of Plant Biology and the Kannapolis Research Campus. Marc Johnson resigns.
• 2011 –  Marc Johnson resigns to take a position in Canada.  Barbara Thakor retires.
• 2011 – Winter-Sederoff moves to Centennial Campus.
• 2012 – Alexander Krings’ position becomes tenure-track.
• 2012 – Heike Sederoff is named a University Faculty Scholar.
• 2012 – Chris Brown leaves NCSU to become Vice President of Research at UNC-GA.
• 2012 – Tzung-Fu Hsieh (plant epigenetics) joins the department as an assistant professor located at the Kannapolis campus.  This hire represents the first faculty member joining the department through the realignment of life sciences departments between CALS and the newly formed College of Sciences (COS).
• 2013 – Wendy Boss (physiology) and Bob Beckmann (ethnobotany) retire.
• 2013 – Bill Hoffmann is named University Faculty Scholar. Chad Jordan and Jim Mickle receive the Gertrude M. Cox Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning with Technology.  Jenny Xiang receives the University Outstanding Global Engagement Award.
• 2013 – The Department becomes the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology (PMB) on July 1 due to the addition of eight additional faculty through the CALS-COS realignment.  Jose Alonso (Professor), Bob Franks (Associate Professor), and Anna Stepanova (Assistant Professor) transfer from Genetics.  Mike Hyman, Amy Grunden, and Eric Miller (Professors), and Jose Bruno-Barcena and Paul Hamilton (Assistant Professors) transfer from Microbiology.  The Microbiology graduate programs (MS, MR, PhD and MMB) transfer to PMB.
• 2013 – JoAnn Burkholder transfers to the newly formed Department of Applied Ecology (formerly Biological Sciences) and retains a joint appointment with PMB.
• 2013 – Eric Miller becomes Director of Graduate Programs for the Microbiology graduate program, replacing Mike Hyman.
• 2013 – Ross Sozzani (plant systems biology) joins the department as an Assistant Professor through the “Synthetic and Systems Biology” Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program (CFEP) Cluster.  This position is the inaugural hire in this cluster, which was developed and directed by Heike Sederoff.
• 2013 – Jillian De Gezelle joins the department as a Teaching Assistant Professor in the area of Ethnobotany, replacing Bob Beckmann.
• 2014 – Tom Wentworth and Stephanie Jeffries publish Exploring southern Appalachian forests. An ecological guide to 30 great hikes in the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia (UNC Press). Udo Blum publishes Plant-plant allelopathic interactions II; Laboratory bioassays for water-soluble compounds with an emphasis on phenolic acids (Springer).
• 2014 – Jon Stucky retires.
• 2014 – Larry Blanton steps down from his position of Executive Director of the NCSU Academic Enhancement Programs to join the department full time.
• 2014 – Chad Jordan is promoted to Teaching Associate Professor.  Jose Bruno-Barcena is promoted to Associate Professor.  Jim Mickle is promoted to Full Professor.
• 2014 – Sue Carson is appointed Director of Quality Enhancement Programs in the NCSU Division of Undergraduate Affairs and is appointed to the tenured position of Associate Professor in the department.
• 2015 – Linda Hanley-Bowdoin (plant virology) transfers to the department from the Department of Biochemistry.
• 2015 – Marcela Pierce and Paul Hamilton are promoted to Associate Professor.
• 2015 – The “Microbiomes and Complex Microbial Communities” Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program Cluster, directed by Mike Hyman along with Chase Beisel (Chemical and Biomedical Engineering) is approved for hiring.
• 2015 – Niki Robertson retires.
• 2016 – Heike Sederoff and Bill Hoffmann are promoted to Full Professor.  Imara Perera is promoted to Research Professor.
• 2017 – Terri Long, Sirius Li, and Alexander Krings are promoted to Associate Professor.  Bob Franks and Deyu Xie are promoted to Full Professor.  Imara Perera is promoted to Research Professor.
• 2017 – Manuel Kleiner (microbial proteomics) joins the department as an Assistant Professor through the Microbiome CFEP cluster.
• 2017 – Chris Brown leaves NCSU to becomes Vice President for Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham
• 2017 – Department awarded the Chancellor’s Creating Community Award in appreciation of the department’s efforts and contributions in the area of diversity, equity and inclusiveness at NC State.
• 2018 – Seema Sheth (Evolutionary Ecology) joins the department as an Assistant Professor in the position vacated by Marc Johnson in 2011.
• 2018 – Jose Alonso receives the Alumni Association Outstanding Research Award.  Linda Hanley-Bowdoin receives the NCSU Outstanding Global Engagement Award.
• 2018 – Ross Sozzani and Tzung-Fu Hsieh are promoted to Associate Professor.  Sue Carson is promoted to Full Professor.
• 2018 – Christine Hawkes (Microbial Ecology) joins the department as a Professor. She was hired into the department as a member of the Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program into the Microbiomes and Complex Microbial Communities cluster.
• 2018 – Margo Daub steps down from the role of department head to return to the faculty.  Bob Franks replaces her in the Dept. Head position.
• 2018 – Tom Wentworth (Ecology) retires and is awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine at his retirement ceremony.
• 2018 – Durreshahwar Muhammad, a graduate student studying with Terri Long, receives the Kenneth R. Keller Award for best CALS Ph.D. thesis.
• 2019 – Anna Stepanova is promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.
• 2019 – Jose Alonso and Amy Grunden are named William Neal Reynolds Professor’s.
• 2019 – Margo Daub retires and becomes an Emeritus member of the department.
• 2019 – Eric Miller steps down as Director of the Graduate Program for Microbiology
• 2019 – Mike Hyman is appointed Director of the Microbiology Graduate Program

• 2020 – Becky Boston retires and becomes an Emeritus member of the department.
• 2020 – Chad Jordan is promoted to Teaching Full Professor. He also received the NCSU University Faculty Advisor Award and the Certificate of Merit of the Outstanding Advising Award – Faculty Academic Advising from the NACADA Global Awards Program.
• 2020 – Jillian De Gezelle is promoted to Teaching Associate Professor.
• 2020 – Jose Bruno Barcena is promoted to Full Professor.
• 2020 – Paul Hamilton receives the CALS Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award.
• 2020 – Ron Gagliardo receives the CALS Outstanding Alumni Award.
• 2020 – Shanna Chriscoe receives the CALS Outstanding Young Alumni Award.
• 2020 – Bill Hoffman was nominated for the Global Engagement Award.
• 2020 –  Ross Sozzani received the honor of becoming a University Faculty Scholar for 2019-2020
• 2020 – Jeff Gillikin (Customer Service) and Laurie Edwards (Efficiency and Innovation) receive the CALS Award for Excellence.
• 2020 – Sue Carson will serve as the rotating Program Director at National Science Foundation in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education.
• 2020 – Jose Alonso and Amy Grunden were named William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professors
• 2020 – Jacob Parnell joined the department as an Adjunct Associate Professor. Dr. Parnell is the Principal Investigator and Project Lead for the Core Microbiome division at Novozymes BioAg in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. 
• 2020 – Cranos Williams was named the new Platform Director for Data-Driven Plant Sciences as part of the North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative (N.C. PSI).

• 2021 -Ross Sozzani was named the new Platform Director for Plant Improvement as part of the North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative (N.C. PSI).
• 2021 – Anna Stepanova named University Faculty Scholar
• 2021 – Heike Sederoff is recipient of the 2021 Alumni Association Outstanding Research Award and inducted into the Research Leadership Academy (RLA).
• 2021 – Linda Hanley-Bowdoin received the Jackson Rigney International Service Award
• 2021 – Manuel Kleiner was selected into the inaugural class of the Goodnight Early Career Innovators
• 2021 – Dr. Marcela Rojas-Pierce was promoted to full professor
• 2021 – Dr. Seema Sheth was reappointed to a 2nd term as Assistant Professor
• 2021 – Dr. Eric Miller and his coPIs (David Tarpy, Alex Graves and Elsa Youngstedt) received renewal of their NIFA funding for the BeeMORE program for an additional five years
• 2021 – Professor Emeritus Dr. Udo Blum was recently featured as a Pioneer of Allelopathy in the Allelopathy Journal of the International Allelopathy Foundation. Since his retirement, he has written a three-volume retrospective analysis of his research on plant-plant allelopathic interactions involving phenolic acids.
• 2021 – Jenny Xiang became a Distinguished Fellow of the Botanical Society of America
• 2021 – Paul Hamilton, Director of the MMB Program retired
• 2021 – Will Petry joined the department as an Assistant Professor
• 2021 – Adrian Percy joined the department as a Professor and the Director of the NC Plant Sciences Initiative (PSI)
• 2021 – NC State ECE Professor Cranos Williams received a joint appointment with our department and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
• 2021 – Awarded grant to start the NSF Science and Technology Center – Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability (STEPS) 
• 2021 – Candace Haigler became a 2021 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

• 2022 – Orlando Arguello-Miranda joined the department as an Assistant Professor.
• 2022 – Bill Hoffman was nominated for the Jackson Rigney International Service Award.
• 2022 – Cranos Williams was named a Goodnight Distinguished Professor in Agricultural Analytics.
• 2022 – Dwayne Barnes received the CALS Award for Excellence.
• 2022 – NC State University Plant Sciences Building, which houses the NC Plant Sciences Initiative (PSI), is dedicated and faculty move into the building.
• 2022 – Ross Sozzani was promoted to full professor.
• 2022 – Sue Carson was appointed Director of the Masters of Microbial Biotechnology Program
• 2022 – Mallory Choudoir joined the department as an Assistant Professor.
• 2022 – Terri Long was appointed NC PSI Education and Workforce Development Platform Director
• 2022 – Deyu Xie has been elected a 2022 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
• 2022 – Bob Franks, was accepted for the Fall 2022 Food Systems Leadership Institute (FSLI)

• 2023 – Terri Long was named a 2022-23 University Faculty Scholar.
• 2023 – Manuel Kleiner was named a 2022-23 University Faculty Scholar.
• 2023 – Cranos Williams was named a 2022-23 University Faculty Scholar
• 2023 – Jenny Xiang was elected President-elect of the Botanical Society of America
• 2023 – Seema Sheth was named to the 2022-2023 class of Goodnight Early Career Innovators
•  2023 – Terri Long was promoted to Professor
• 2023 – Alexander Krings was promoted to Professor
• 2023 – Dr. Zhe Lyu has been appointed as an Associate Member of the Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease (CGIBD) jointly run by UNC Chapel Hill and NC State to strengthen the lab’s research in gut microbiome
• 2023 – Catherine Freeman, PMB Executive Assistant, received the CALS Award for Excellence.
• 2023 – Kasie Raymann joined the department as an Assistant Professor

• 2024 – Linda Hanley-Bowdoin receives the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal of Excellence
• 2024 – Elizabeth Thomas received the CALS Award for Excellence
• 2024 – Seema Sheth was promoted to Associate Professor
• 2024 – Sirius Li was promoted to Professor
• 2024 – Anna Stepanova was promoted to Professor
• 2024 – Tzung-Fu Hsieh was promoted to Professor
• 2024 – Jim Mickle retired.