BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH – DR. STEPHEN EBBS
Dr. Ebbs is a native of Southern
Illinois, but has lived throughout the United States. After
graduating from Virden Community High School (now part of the North Mac Community School District) in
1986, he attended McKendree College (now McKendree
University) from 1986 to 1990, graduating with a B.S. in Biology from the Honor’s Program. His undergraduate thesis, Patterns
of sexual dimorphism in a population of house sparrows (Passer domesticus), was the first undergraduate thesis
published in The Sigma Zetan, the
official publication of the Sigma
Zeta National Science and Mathematics Honor Society. After leaving McKendree College, Dr. Ebbs moved
to Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, to
begin his graduate studies in Environmental
Toxicology. His Masters research was carried out at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research
on the Cornell campus under the supervision of the late Dr.
Leonard Weinstein, examining a
trace element interaction between selenium and arsenic in plants. His
dissertation research was conducted at the U.S. Plant, Soil, and Nutrition
Laboratory, USDA-ARS under the supervision of Dr. Leon Kochian.
This research examined several facets of heavy metal and radionuclide
phytoremediation, including the screening of plants for contaminant
bioaccumulation and the use of soil amendments to increase solubility and plant
uptake. The contaminants of focus were zinc, copper, radiocesium and
uranium. Dr. Ebbs followed with a two year post-doctoral position with
Dr. Kochian, studying the mechanisms of transport and tolerance in the metal
hyperaccumulator Thlaspi caerulescens. Dr. Ebbs accepted a
tenure-track position in the Department of Plant Biology
at Southern Illinois University in the fall
of 1999. In August, 2004, Dr. Ebbs was promoted to Associate Professor
and then to full professor in July 2013. During his time at SIUC, Dr. Ebbs
has held a three-year term adjunct appointment at Carnegie
Mellon University,
and has been a visiting professor at Purdue
University (2002), the University of Melbourne
(2005), and Cornell
University (2006).
Since 2008, Dr. Ebbs has served as the Assistant Chair of Plant Biology
and has been networking with regional community colleges to aid with
undergraduate recruiting. On November 1,
2011, Dr. Ebbs became the Interim Chair of the Department of Plant Biology.
On the personal side, Dr. Ebbs
enjoys the outdoors, exercise, movies, movie trivia, classic science fiction,
and computer games. He also enjoys tending his rose bushes and puttering
around doing yard work on the weekends. If he had the time and money,
he’d travel around the world, starting with return visits to Australia, Tasmania,
and England.
Other places he’d like to visit include Scotland,
Greece, Holland,
Italy, and New Zealand.
SIUC / Plant Biology / Faculty/ Stephen Ebbs
URL: http://www.neckers.siu.edu/plant-biology/Faculty/ebbs/index_files/Ebbs_biosketch.htm
Last updated: 30-Jun-13 / sde