Dr. Kaylee South has joined the research team at IALR as she fills the tenure-track faculty member position of Virginia Tech’s School of Plant and Environmental Sciences. She will serve as an Assistant Professor and conduct research at the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Innovation Center on IALR’s campus. She will bring with her funding for two graduate students and a post-doc to support CEA research efforts.

Dr. South holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, Horticultural Science from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in Horticulture and Crop Science from The Ohio State University. She is passionate about controlled environment plant production and specializes in investigating the use of beneficial microbes to improve greenhouse floriculture crop production and plant quality, which is beneficial as similar research is ongoing at the Virginia Tech-IALR CEA Innovation Center.