Geunhwa Jung holds a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His mission statement is to serve to extend the boundaries of the University, bringing education and technical support to people in every region of the state. In order to accomplish this goal it is critical to identify immediate, practical problems faced by the turf industry, to conduct applied research to address those problems, to reformulate current research data into layperson terms, and to provide science-based information to them. Dr. Jung's research and extension programs have been focused on providing clientele with economically and environmentally sound disease control strategies, which are based on solid research. The long-term goal of Dr. Jung’s research and extension program is to focus on developing improved, disease resistant turfgrasses such as creeping bentgrass and ryegrass using classical and molecular methods. Specifically, he is currently studying the mechanisms of host resistance to turfgrass fungal diseases by estimating location, number, and effect of the disease resistant genes using DNA marker technology. For that purpose, he has developed the first genetic linkage map (which acts as a road map) in creeping bentgrass, which has been utilized for locating dollar spot resistance genes.
