Neal Stewart, a professor of plant sciences, holds the Ivan Racheff Chair of Excellence in plant molecular genetics. He serves as co-director of the Tennessee Plant Research Center. After taking a PhD at Virginia Tech, he joined Wayne Parrott's lab at the University of Georgia as a postdoc from 1993-1995, after which he moved to UNC-Greensboro where he was an assistant-, then associate professor from 1995-2002 in biology. In 2002, Stewart assumed the Racheff Chair with an appointment of professor. The Stewart Lab’s research spans plant biotechnology, synthetic biology, genomics, and ecology. He has been performing agricultural biotechnology and biotechnology risk assessment research since 1994. His research has been supported by various granting agencies in the DOE, USDA, NSF, NASA and from various other sources, including industry. Of the approximately $25 M awarded over the past 20 years in grants and contracts, nearly 10% has had industry ties.