Georg Jander

Since 2005, Jander has been the principal investigator for a plant-focused undergraduate summer internship program at the Boyce Thompson Institute. Undergraduate research internships are currently funded by US National Science Foundation award #1850796 and United States Department of Agriculture award #2022-67037-3622. Notable alumni of the summer research program include Adam Steinbrenner, assistant professor at the University of Washington, Kaitlin Gold, assistant professor at Cornell University, and Karl Kremling, senior scientist at Inari Agriculture.

Since joining the Boyce Thompson Institute as a faculty member in 2002, Jander has studied several plant species, including maize (Zea mays), mouse-ear cress (Arabidopsis), wallflowers in the genus Erysimum. In each plant species, Jander's laboratory uses techniques in biochemical genetics to identify the genetic causes of plant secondary metabolism involved in plant defenses against insects. A particular focus of the Jander lab has been research involving plant interactions with aphids. Jander's research publications have been cited more than 17,000 times by other scientists.

Jander received and undergraduate degree in computer science from Washington University in 1983. As a PhD student in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, working under the supervision of Jon Beckwith at Harvard Medical School, he wrote a thesis titled Genetic studies on protein folding and protein secretion in Escherichia coli, and is an author of journal publications in this research area. While working as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Fred Ausubel at Massachusetts General Hospital, Jander initiated research on the molecular biology and genetics of Arabidopsis thaliana defense against insect herbivores. He continued his research training in plant genetics and molecular biology as a scientist at the Monsanto Company from 1998 to 2002.