Scot Hulbert
Washington State University
Dr. Scot H. Hulbert received his B.S. degree in horticulture from Washington State University, and his M.S. in vegetable crops, and Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California at Davis in 1987. He accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in biological sciences at Purdue University before joining the faculty of the Department of Plant Pathology at Kansas State University in 1989. In 2006, Hulbert joined Washington State University as an Endowed Chair of Cropping Systems Pathology.
Early in his career, Dr. Hulbert postulated that the organization of genes on chromosomes of cereals is conserved through the divergence of plant species. This collinearity hypothesis had tremendous impacts on our understanding of plant genome evolution as well as on plant breeding strategies. Dr. Hulbert is an authority on the structure and evolution of plant disease resistance genes. His research on the Rp1 gene family in maize has provided critical insights into the origins and evolution of gene families and clusters, demonstrating the occurrence and the genetic consequences of unequal crossover events at complex resistance loci resulting in the generation of new genes and novel phenotypes.
Dr. Hulbert served as chair of the Washington State University (WSU) Plant Pathology Department from 2013-2018. In 2018, he transitioned to serve as the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences (CAHNRS) Associate Dean of Research and Director of the Agricultural Research Center until 2023. In December 2023, Dr. Hulbert transitioned to the WSU CAHNRS Senior Associate Dean. He provided leadership and service to agInnovation-West as chair-elect, chair, and past-chair from 2021 to 2023. Dr. Hulbert was instrumental in moving the Western region’s research collaborations and portfolio forward.
