Stephen WelchStephen Welch is a professor at Kansas State University. His focus is gene networks, plant phenology, optimal parameter estimation, and parallel computing, with applications in ecological genomics and plant breeding. He has a B.S. in Computer Science(1971) and a Ph.D. in Zoology (1977), both from Michigan State University. The common thread in his career has been computer simulation of living systems in both the departments of entomology and (since 1990) agronomy. Short term activities have included service as Acting State Climatologist for Kansas and Interim Director of University Computing and Network Services. Recent work has involved modeling the genetic control of Arabidopsis flowering time as part of a multinational collaboration with field sites from Spain to Finland. Under the auspices of the iPlant Collaborative funded by the US National Science Foundation, he also co-leads an international team developing a cyberinfrastructure for grand challenge research that interrelates plant genotypes and phenotypes. He has 61 peer reviewed papers, conference proceedings, and book chapters, plus 78 publications of other types. Read More Read Less