Dr. Hairong Wei
Assistant Professor

School of Forest Resources
and Environmental Science
176 Horner Hall
906.487.1473

hairong@mtu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Open Graduate Position

Forest trees serve as the only net carbon sink for excessive CO2 in our atmosphere. However, the strength of this sink is still very limited and cannot meet the substantial need for preventing the ongoing global warming caused by the accumulated CO2. The existing forests uptake only 15% CO2 emitted from the consuming of fossil fuel. Can we modify the sink-strength of forest trees so that more CO2 will be converted to the useful but unavailable form like woody products? The answer is: We certainly can if our research is well supported.

"Systems biology is the solution for the most daunting problems we are facing, including the global warming, and the depletion of global oil reserves"

In my laboratory we use methods of systems biology, bioinformatics and genomics to study the mechanisms by which the rate of sink-growth of forest trees is regulated. We are looking for the control points and regulatory motifs in either gene networks or biochemical pathways, which can be modified to expand the capacity of CO2 fixation via enhanced growth rate.

Specific Interests:

Systems Biology: Gene network constructions & gene function prediction
Genomics and Bioinformatics on tree growth & wood development
Biological database design and development