Dr. Majid R. Foolad is Professor of Plant Genetics, The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). He is a member of faculty in the Department of Horticulture, and The Inter-college Graduate Degree Programs in Genetics, Plant Biology, and Bioinformatics and Genomics. He is also in-charge of the “Penn State Tomato Genetics and Breeding Program”, where he conducts genetics and breeding research on tomato response to biotic and abiotic stresses, as well as genetic controls of fruit nutritional quality. Dr. Foolad's current research interests include resistance to tomato diseases early blight and late blight, tolerance to drought stress, and improved fruit lycopene content. He uses a combination of traditional protocols of plant genetics and breeding and contemporary techniques of molecular breeding. He has developed several genetic maps of tomato and identified and mapped genes or QTLs for disease resistance, abiotic stress tolerance, and fruit quality characteristics. Dr. Foolad has published nearly 100 reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He has released several tomato breeding-lines with improved disease resistance and exceptionally high fruit lycopene content. He teaches senior classes in Plant Breeding, graduate course in Plant Genomics and a graduate course in Plant Biology. He advises several undergraduate, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. Dr. Foolad obtained his B.S. and M.S. degree from Plant Breeding, University of Shiraz (Iran) and PhD. in Genetics at University of California, Davis.
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