Dr. Gschwend earned her B.A. degree from Augustana College and her Ph.D. in Plant Biology from the University of Illinois, where her main research interests were crop genomics and the evolution of papaya sex chromosomes.  She carried out her postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago and was awarded the NIH NRSA fellowship to study the role of newly evolved genes in the reproductive fitness of Drosophila.  Dr. Gschwend taught at Loyola University for a year before starting at The Ohio State University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science. 

Research in the Gschwend lab focuses on understanding how evolutionary forces shape the genetic architecture of crop genomes and contribute to novel phenotypes.  We use an evolutionary approach, and comparative and functional genomics techniques, to detect and analyze newly evolved genes contributing to desirable agronomic phenotypes, with the goal of crop improvement.   

Member since September 2018.