Dr. Cheng received his Ph.D in 1991 and MS in 1988 from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and his B.S. degree in 1982 from Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China. After his graduation from Cornell, he worked as an Assistant and Associate Professor at North Dakota State University from November 1990 to August 2001, and as the Director of the Cellular & Molecular Biology Ph.D Program (10/1998 -- 8/2001). Dr. Cheng joined the University of Tennessee in September 2001. Dr. Cheng's research program focuses on two areas, genomics and molecular phylogeny, and the interface of molecular biology and plant breeding and growth and development of woody plants, particularly Populus . Current research focuses on three major areas. One is associated with Populus genomics and poplar genetic engineering for biomass energy production. The projects include transformation of aspen plants for increasing growth rate and for enhanced rooting from hardwood cuttings and understanding adventitious rooting mechanisms, genetic transformation of Populus trichocarpa Nisqually-1 for poplar functional genomics research, developing sterile poplar trees to reduce the environmental risk of the transgenic poplars, genetic engineering poplars for heavy metal phytoremediation, and characterization of poplar genome. Another major area of research is to employ biotechnology to neutralize the invasiveness of high-value ornamental plants and to possibly eradicate invasive plants. .