Welcome to the Department of Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University. With expertise ranging from ecosystems services and disease management, to plant breeding, genomics, and food safety, we provide leadership and deliver programs that are internationally recognized and respected and have impact at local, national, and international levels. To provide this leadership, we work in an interdisciplinary and collaborative manner to effectively address complex problems and emerging threats that challenge food production and security. Above all, we value our missions of teaching, extension/outreach, research, international, service, and stewardship. We are home to 70 faculty, 100 graduate students, 86 post-docs and staff members, and 200 undergraduate and certificate students. For more information see our mission statement.
PSM In The News
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MSU-led team receives EPA grant to explore biosolid treatments, effects of pollutants such as PFAS
Published on September 17, 2021 by Michigan Farm News
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MSU Crop and Soil Sciences Student Payton Perkinson Wins Top Award in GCSAA Scholars Competition
Published on September 7, 2021 by Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA)
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Student Organic Farm offers fresh veggies for fall
Published on August 12, 2021 by MSU Today
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Morgan Stanley Announces Inaugural Winners of the Sustainable Solutions Award and Collaborative
Published on June 9, 2021 by Business Wire
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Spotting tar spot sooner
Published on June 3, 2021 by MSU Today
News
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Center for PFAS Research Faculty Spotlight: Pouyan Nejadhashemi
Published on December 1, 2021
Dr. Nejadhashemi leads an interdisciplinary research team focused on addressing water resource problems including water quantity and quality. -
New Faculty Returns to MSU
Published on November 19, 2021
How did Sarah Lebeis — who was inspired by human genetics and evolution, which led her to a PhD in immunology from a medical school, — find her way back to MSU? -
MSU researcher part of new $10M project to study, support diverse perennial forage systems across the US
Published on November 15, 2021
MSU to receive $900K and lead efforts with farms to evaluate benefits and risks. -
Weekly Beet -November 12, 2021
Published on November 12, 2021
In this weeks issue: PSM welcomes Patty Bonito to PSM. Patty as our new Communications Coordinator, other seminars and learning opportunities featured.
New Faculty Returns to MSU
How did Sarah Lebeis — who was inspired by human genetics and evolution, which led her to a PhD in immunology from a medical school, — find her way back to MSU? “The common thread is my interest in host-microbe interactions,” says Lebeis, who joined PSM faculty as Assistant Professor in 2020.
“In grad school I became fascinated with how hosts and microbes recognize and respond to unlike entities,” says Lebeis who brings passion as well as experience on her journey, combining her knowledge and research in microbiology, immunology, and metagenomics.
Lebeis began her career with a bachelor’s degree at MSU in 2002. She then pursued a Ph.D at Emory University in Atlanta, and enjoyed a post-doc fellowship at University of North Carolina, exploring how plants shape their microbiome which was published in Science.
In her first faculty position at the University of Tennessee Lebeis earned a top achievement for outstanding undergraduate mentoring, and studied the spatial and temporal scale of plant-microbe interactions.
Growing her program here at MSU, Lebeis says she is always looking for students who want to be good lab teammates. “Two of my students are from the University of Tennessee and two are from Michigan State University, but we feel like one cohesive and collaborative lab group.”
While Lebeis’ pursues her goal — to understand and define the mechanisms by which plants and microbes interact, and how those relationships are affected by changes in season and the climate — she says it’s just as important to “understand how to translate what we observe in the lab to the field.” Ultimately, Lebeis says, she’d like to know how to provide the plant—and farmers—with more resilience.
In addition to research and teaching, Lebeis is excited to be part of the Plant Resilience Institute, which brings together junior and senior faculty from diverse disciplines and to enhance research and experimentation in plant resilience to extreme weather and climate change, and to contribute to the Plant Science Excellence committee, which supports university-level coordination and synergy across disciplines.
Originally from Farmington Hills, Sarah is happy to be among family and friends here at MSU. “It’s an amazing opportunity to return to Michigan, a place I know and love.”
