Rausser College of Natural Resources is excited to welcome six faculty members this academic year. Their research expertise spans a variety of topics, including environmental economics, metabolic biology, land management, and plant biology.
We look forward to their contributions to our community. Welcome to Rausser College!
Assistant Professor, Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology
Alessandra Ferrari studies how cholesterol, a fundamental component of cellular membranes, is transported to the endoplasmic reticulum for processing and conversion into lipoproteins, bile acids, and steroid hormones. Specifically, her lab combines elements of physiology and molecular biology to understand how breakdowns in this movement, particularly in intestinal cells, combine with nutritional deficiencies to contribute to metabolic disorders and lipid-related diseases. By identifying new mechanisms of cholesterol transport, exploring the way the body regulates these pathways, and assessing the impact of lipid transport on health, Ferrari hopes to enhance scientific understanding of lipid biology and its implications for gut health and overall metabolic balance.
Ferrari earned her PhD in biochemistry from the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, where her doctoral research focused on the epigenetic regulation of adipose tissue metabolism. She was a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA prior to joining the Department.
Alessandra Ferrari
Assistant Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics
Environmental economist Shifrah Aron-Dine’s research explores questions at the intersection of macroeconomics, finance, and environmental economics, focusing on how households, markets, and government policies interact. In recent work, Aron-Dine studied the distributional effects of natural disasters and the impact of post-disaster policies in Puerto Rico, following Hurricane Maria in 2017. In other ongoing work, she explores the potential substitution of private action for government policy to accelerate the transition to a green economy through financial markets.
Aron-Dine joins the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics this year as a new assistant professor. She earned her PhD in economics from Stanford University and has a BS in physics from Harvey Mudd College.
Shifrah Aron-Dine
Assistant Professor, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Restoration ecologist Justin Luong studies working lands—areas that are used for ranching, farming, renewable energy, or other ecosystem services—and how they can be managed, restored, and conserved to benefit both people and the environment. Specifically, Luong’s research centers on understanding how management and restoration practices can make lands more resilient to climate change and more resistant to invasive plant species. Much of his work incorporates perspectives from land managers to understand how rangelands can balance production needs and native plant biodiversity. Since 2023, Luong has led a California Climate Action Grant project focused on establishing a statewide Grassland Restoration Network (GRASS-Net) to connect restoration practitioners, land managers and tribal entities across the state in an effort to identify and encourage the use of drought-resistant and culturally important grassland plants in restoration projects.
Luong is a two-time graduate of the University of California system, having earned an environmental studies PhD from UC Santa Cruz and a BS from UC Santa Barbara. He was a faculty member at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, before joining UC Berkeley. Luong is involved in various professional societies and organizations, including the California Native Grassland Association, where he is a board member and chair of its Science and Education committee.
Justin Luong
Assistant Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology
Plant developmental biologist Yan Gong studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that plants use to pattern themselves and form specialized structures. As a PhD student at Stanford University, Gong studied how cell polarity in Arabidopsisthaliana is controlled in the stomatal lineage, and how changes in cell polarity alter the developmental progression of the lineage stem cell. Later, as a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard University, Gong conducted research on the cellular and molecular dynamics that govern the development of nectaries—the specialized structures that produce plant nectar—in flowering species of the Aquilegia and Mimulus genus.
At UC Berkeley, Gong plans to further explore the developmental mechanisms that govern nectary development and diversity, as well as the evolutionary history of nectaries in select flowering plants. He plans to integrate elements of genetic screening, biochemical profiling, quantitative live imaging, single-cell transcriptomics, and evolutionary comparisons to explore how these structures have evolved independently and how they change in closely related lineages to accommodate different pollinators. Gong also hopes to expand his research to nectaries from other lineages of flowering plants, particularly those in the Rosaceae family and Tropaeolum genus.
Yan Gong
Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology
Plant biologist Rebecca Bart’s research program occupies the unique and important space between ‘mystery-driven’ scientific pursuits and impactful translation of science into solutions for farmers. Specifically, she works on understanding the interactions between plants, microbes, and the environment. This includes developing and deploying novel genetic methods to protect plants from pathogens and cultivating associations with beneficial microbes. Her work is bolstered by cutting-edge technologies, including modeling, genomics, high-throughput phenotyping, and gene editing. Focus crops include those with significant international importance, such as cassava, as well as key staples in the US, including corn, sorghum, cotton, and tomato..
Bart earned a BA from Reed College and her PhD in plant pathology at UC Davis. She was a USDA-NIFA postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley prior to beginning her own laboratory at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, where she most recently also served as the Interim Vice President for Research. She now returns to campus as a professor in PMB, an investigator with the Innovative Genomics Institute, and the Scientific Director at the Plant Gene Expression Center, a joint venture between UC Berkeley and the USDA.
Rebecca Bart
Assistant Professor, Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology
Güneş Parlakgül’s research can offer a new perspective on understanding metabolic regulation, which may lead to the identification of potential targets for treating fatty liver disease and other metabolic diseases such as obesity or diabetes. Specifically, his lab investigates how the shape, distribution, interaction, and overall organization of cellular organelles regulate function and metabolism at the tissue and organism level. Much of his research focuses on deciphering the role of the endoplasmic reticulum in metabolic regulation.
Parlakgül received his MD from Istanbul University. His postdoctoral training at Harvard University focused on developing novel methods to interrogate the relationship between organelle structure and function. He first joined UC Berkeley in 2022 as a research scientist in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology, and most recently served as an assistant adjunct professor. Last year, Parlakgül was named a recipient of the Career Award for Medical Scientists by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, which provides $700,000 in grant funding to support research and career development. He will start his independent laboratory in January 2026.
Güneş Parlakgül