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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PSM / MSU researcher receives $750K grant to examine effects of wildfire burn severity on soil health
Published on February 22, 2022 by MSU Today
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Michigan produced more than 2 billion pounds of potatoes in 2021
Published on February 11, 2022 by Hillsdale Daily News
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Michigan State researchers part of team investigating winter stresses on turfgrass in northern climates
Published on January 26, 2022 by Golf Course Industry
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Nine MSU researchers elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Published on January 26, 2022 by MSU Today
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How do crops cope with stress?
Published on September 22, 2021 by MSU Today
News
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Welcome Margaret Fleming
Published on May 19, 2022
Margaret Fleming joins PSM as an Assistant Professor. -
PSM’s Lisa Tiemann will return to Kenya with her Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award
Published on April 27, 2022
PSM’s Lisa Tiemann will return to Kenya with her Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award -
Eric Olson awarded $100K matching funds for purchase of equipment
Published on April 27, 2022
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CANR provides rankings on department, unit initiatives around DEI
Published on April 26, 2022
The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion announced the 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Badge Awards recipients at the CANR Faculty and Staff Reception on Apr. 21.
Welcome Margaret Fleming
Welcome New Faculty
Margaret Fleming joined the Department as Assistant Professor. Fleming joins us from the Department of Plant Biology, where she has been working with Marjorie Weber with funding from Project GREEEN, the Office of Research and Innovation, AgBioResearch, CNS, and the Department of Plant Biology to develop a new version of Beal's buried seed experiment and

“to learn what's so special about Verbascum blattaria that it has continued to germinate while the other species have all seemingly died,” Fleming says.
Fleming’s research focuses on seeds and their survival strategies, using molecular and physiological techniques. “I'm very interested in how seeds deal with getting wet and not germinating, including in the soil seed bank, during priming, or in humid storage environments.”
Starting this fall, Fleming will teach CSS492 (Professional Development Seminar II), and CSS222 (New Horizons in Biotechnology) starting in fall 2023.
Fleming hails originally from Gaithersburg MD, and came to MSU from her graduate program at CSU, where she studied the influence of extensin cross-linking on biomass recalcitrance.
“I am excited to put my training in teaching writing to undergrads to good use!”