Field of Expertise

Tree fruit science, production systems and postharvest biology and technology

Expertise

I am the founder of XLSOR a Lab-to-Life start-up company from CSU STRATA and an Associate Professor of Pomology with the Dept. of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Colorado State University. My research program emphasizes on orchard and environmental factors affecting productivity, harvest quality and postharvest physiology of tree fruit. I perform close outreach with the tree fruit industry in the development and adoption of novel systems and technologies to improve general orchard performance and postharvest handling. Areas of my research include development of novel non-destructive technologies to estimate internal fruit quality, understanding the environmental and biological bases for cold hardiness and damage in fruit trees, evaluation of new cultivars and rootstocks and evaluation of new training systems for peaches and other fruit tree crops. At CSU I have raised more than $2M. directly to my program. I am Associate Editor in Scientia Horticulturae and senior or co-author in more than 50 peer reviewed publications in the field of pomology and postharvest physiology.