Source: NCSU COLLEGE OF AG & LIFE SCIENCES, 9/29/20


From earning his bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees in Spain, to completing his postdoctoral work at the Carnegie Institution in Stanford, California, Rubén Rellán-Álvarez brings plenty of diverse thought, creativity and teaching to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Molecular and Structural Biochemistry. Prior to joining CALS in January 2019, Álvarez started a lab in Mexico in 2015 at the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity. 

What attracted you to NC State?
The job matched well with the work I was doing in my lab in Mexico. The Biochemistry Department was looking for someone working on crop abiotic stress and processes related to changes in metabolism as it relates to adaptation to different abiotic stresses in crops. The research program in Mexico is geared toward understanding the genetic basis of a natural variation of lipids in maize and its role in the process of maize adaptation to different environments. NC State is well known for the work that pioneers, like Major Goodman, have done in understanding maize diversity and how we can use this diversity for practical breeding applications. There were many aspects that convinced me that NC State and CALS was the perfect place to further develop our research program, including the possibility to collaborate with colleagues like James Holland, Peter Balint-Kurti and Matt Krakowski, also working in different areas of maize diversity. The excellent support provided by the CALS/NCDA network of research stations across the state and the decisive support and enthusiasm from my department in particular and the plant biology community has only affirmed my decision to come here.

For more of this story, click here.