Biology professor earns international recognition for faculty-student research at The Lub Lab

Saint Michaels College Biology Professor Mark Lubkowitzs years of research into corn genetics with dozens of students was recently recognized with a prestigious international award.

Lubkowitz was awarded the 2024 Maize Genetic Leadership Award at this year's Maize Meeting, which was held in Raleigh, North Carolina, in March. Price knows maize collaborators who have inspired the lives and careers of other maize researchers through mentorship, leadership, outreach and education.

Six hundred scientists from around the world attend the conference each year, spending 16 hours a day talking corn. MMost of the participating colleges and universities are top-tier R1 research universities or land-grant institutions, where the primary focus of professors is to train graduate and postdoctoral students to discover new research. Saint Michaels is one of the small liberal arts colleges that participate each year.

Almost everyone there is from a research university. In fact, I can think of only one other person from a small liberal arts college speaking at this meeting this century, Lubkowitz said.

Lubkowitz began attending in 1998 and has led students to 75% of conferences, reaching 30 students over three decades.

That was part of the reason I won that award was for bringing so many students over the years, Lubkowitz said. I was part of the original thinking group on how to increase, not only participation, but programming for graduate students in order to nurture the STEM pipeline, as well as the underrepresented individuals who have come to our conference.

Lubkowitz said the conference is prime for networking, creating collaborations and learning about grant opportunities. National Science Foundation officers are there along with the seed companies. This year, Lubkowitz brought Brandon Boris 24, Emilie Hoffmann 24 and Kaitlyn Koutsoufis 24. The trio presented a poster illustrating the research they had done around the corner of leaves over the summer.

Their work was validated by global scientists, Lubkowitz said. My students were definitely the center of attention. Out of 600 people, there were maybe 12 students there.

Lubkowitz said the experience proves to be transformative each year for the students he brings, and they gain a deeper appreciation for their education at Saint Michaels. He noted that even though everyone in the room is a Ph.D. above them, his students still understand what's going on, which is empowering.

In 2022, Lubkowitz and Valerie Bang-Jensen of the Department of Education were awarded a four-year grant to study leaf angle variation across the corn canopy. It was funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the Plant Genome Research Projects. The grant runs from 2022 to 2026 and is a collaborative effort between scientists at Iowa State University, the University of Missouri, Cornell University and Saint Michaels College. A portion of the $2.5 million grant, or $284,000, went to Saint Michaels.

Since receiving the grant, Saint Michaels students have identified four keys that contribute to leaf angle control. The Saint Michaels and Cornell University teams share their information with teams at the University of Missouri and Iowa State University, where Iowa State researchers grow the plants in the field. Saint Michaels is on the gene discovery side and Iowa is on the plant and field condition discovery side.

Lubkowitz used solar farm imagery to describe the research. Solar panels take the energy of light and convert it into electricity. The panels are laid out to face the sun and are never stacked on top of each other because they would end up in the shade. Leaves, he explained, are like solar panels. They take light energy and turn it into chemical energy.

But when you look at an average corn field, most of the leaves are piled on top of each other. This has led to a concept Lubkowitz called a smart tent. Lubkowitz and his students are working on research to manipulate leaf angle in order to maximize photosynthesis and minimize competition between plants. It is based on latitude. The first step is to identify the genes that control leaf angle.

The leaves cover each other, Lubkowitz explained. If you change the angle of the leaves, you will get more photosynthesis. If you get more photosynthesis, you get more yield. You get more produce per hectare. This reduces the cost of food. This lowers the environmental cost of growing food.

Lubkowitz spoke at this year's conference about the research he is doing at Saint Michaels with his students and about collaborations with Cornell University, the University of Missouri and Iowa State University. During his speech, he emphasized how professors can conduct research even when they work in a college that does not have students in post-doctoral or graduate studies. He used Saint Michaels as an example, which has course-based undergraduate research experiences (CURES). Lubkowitz explained that at Saint Michaels, he has been able to integrate some of his research into his classroom. His leaf corner grant research takes place both in his classroom and in the lab. Some students who take that class become his research students in his lab, where he works with students four days a week.

If you learn science by doing science, we've created this mechanism by which two-thirds of our students in a given semester are doing a research-based curriculum, Lubokwitz said. They are working on a faculty member's research project and, therefore, learn science by doing science.

Brandon Boris 24 attended this year's corn meeting and had been working in The Lub Lab, as the students affectionately call it, since last summer.

I believe I played a critical role with my participation in the lab and I am truly blessed to be able to be a part of something so amazing, said Boris.

Many of the Saint Michaels students Lubkowitz has taken to the conference have gone on to become scientists, doctors and professors themselves. Saint Michael's Director of the Center for the Environment and Instructor, Kristyn Achilich, was a past student who attended the conference with Lubkowitz.

Corn, a $90 billion-a-year crop in the U.S., is currently the world's largest crop. Researchers working on maize study everything from deep evolutionary issues, domestication, disease, development and production.

Boris said being able to work closely with Lubkowitz on his faculty-led research project has been life-changing.

I could go on about that man for hours. He makes it fun, Boris said. I don't think I would have fallen in love with the lab and the corn if it wasn't for him. He is one of the most passionate people I have ever met.