-
Xin-Gen "Shane" Zhou
- he, him, his
- Professor
- Focus Area: Rice Diseases and Their Management
- Office:
- Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center, Beaumont
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 409-245-8627
- Website: https://beaumont.tamu.edu/
Education
- Undergraduate Education
- B.S., Plant Protection. Zhejiang University
- Graduate Education
- M.S., Plant Pathology. Zhejiang University
- Ph.D., Plant Pathology. Oklahoma State University
- Postdoc. Plant Pathology, University of Maryland, College Park
- Awards
- American Phytopathological Society Outstanding Services, 2022
- U.S. Rice Technical Working Group’s Distinguished Organic Rice Research and Extension Team Award, 2025
- Texas A&M AgriLife Research Faculty Promotion Peer Review Committee, 2023 - Present
- Steering Committee of the International Rice False Smut Consortium, 2024 - Present
Areas of Expertise
- Plant disease etiology
- Epidemiology of rice diseases
- Management of diseases in rice, including organic rice
Rice Diseases and Their Management
Professional Summary
Xin-Gen (Shane) Zhou, Ph.D. is a professor at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and
Extension Center at Beaumont and in the Department of Plant Pathology and
Microbiology. His research focuses on the etiology, epidemiology, and management of
diseases in rice, including organic rice. His research activities center on sheath blight,
kernel smut, Hoja Blanca, narrow brown leaf spot, the seedling disease complex, false
smut, bacterial panicle blight, and other diseases, economically important in Texas’
main and ratoon (second harvest) rice crops. His research focuses on improving cultivar
resistance and chemical control, developing effective biological control methods (cover
crops, PGPRs, endophytes and other beneficial microorganisms), and utilizing UAVs for
remote sensing, Raman spectroscopy, spore trap, core-microbiome manipulation, and
other innovative approaches to detect and manage diseases. His goal is to develop
sustainable and profitable strategies to safeguard rice crop health and enhance
productivity. Dr. Zhou has secured $19 M dollars in research funding and has authored
over 829 publications, including 98 refereed papers. He has discovered three new plant
pathogens and six new plant diseases. His research has contributed to the release of a
new rice cultivar and resulted in two patents. He has also served as a senior editor for
Plant Disease, Plant Health Progress, PhytoFrontiers, and other international journals.