This spring, the College of Science is excited to host the University of North Texas' third-ever SMART Talk, featuring Dr. Rebecca Dickstein. Dr. Dickstein is an influential researcher, member of the BioDiscovery Institute, and UNT professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. In her eighteen years at the University, twenty-seven graduate and postdoc students and more than fifty undergraduates have conducted research toward their degrees in her lab. Her molecular genetic research has been continuously supported by the US Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation, and is currently funded as a part of a $5 million grant from the latter.
On April 23, 2019 at 4pm in the UNT Union Lyceum, Dr. Dickstein will be presenting an engaging lecture entitled, "Over-Fertilized? Tools for Sustainable Agriculture: The Legume Connection." The talk will discuss crop production and the high environmental cost of nitrogen fertilizers, and how the ongoing molecular genetics research of legume (plants in the pea and bean family) biology in Dr. Dickstein's lab could hold the key to more sustainable agriculture worldwide.
The SMART Talk series was created when the College of Science became an independent UNT college in 2017. Its purpose is to highlight the outstanding scholarly work of COS faculty while bringing the UNT community together to discuss scientific breakthroughs and learn about the building blocks of the world around us. S.M.A.R.T. stands for "Science & Mathematics Advancing Research & Technology." All College of Science faculty, staff, alumni, and students, are encouraged to attend these free community events.
RSVP or view more event information here.
About Dr. Rebecca Dickstein:
Dr. Rebecca Dickstein is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Department of Biological Sciences and a member of UNT's BioDiscovery Institute. She earned her B.S. in Biochemistry from Penn. State University, her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from John Hopkins University and did postdoctoral work in Molecular Biology and Genetics in a joint department of Havard Univeristy and the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Dickstein is an expert in the development of nitrogen-fixing root nodules in legumes and has published over 40 scientific papers in this area. Her laboratory conducts research on the molecular genetics of the nitrogen-fixing symbiosis in the model Medicago-truncatula - Sinorhizobium meliloti symbiosis. In her talk, Dr. Dickstein will discuss nitrogen fertilizer, how the legume symbiosis allows them to produce their own fixed nitrogen and her lab's efforts to uncover legume secrets to how they do it.