Professor of Biology, Graduate Program Director for the Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry Graduate Program

Overview

Mark received his B.S. in Biology from Wake Forest University in 1993 and completed his graduate work in Microbiology/Cell and Molecular Biology at the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory at Michigan State University (Ph.D. 2000) where he studied mRNA degradation with Dr. Pamela J. Green. Mark began working on plant reproductive development while he was an NIH Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellow at The University of Chicago with Dr. Daphne Preuss (2000-2004). Mark joined the faculty of Brown University in September of 2004. Mark's laboratory is focused on understanding the molecular basis for cellular communication. They focus on flowering plant reproduction because this process is essential for agricultural productivity and because it relies on an elaborate dialogue between experimentally tractable cells. Mark is active in graduate and undergraduate teaching and mentoring. He is the MCB graduate program director and the director of Brown's Howard Hughes Medical Institute-funded efforts to increase retention among undergraduates interested in STEM disciplines.

Brown Affiliations

Research Areas