![[Biotechnology Center for Agriculture & the Environment]](http://njaes.rutgers.edu/_common/images/subheads/biotech.gif "[Biotechnology Center for Agriculture & the Environment]"){kind=small}
Director Eric Lam
Eric Lam has been a professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology since 1989 and is currently serving as director of the Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He also serves on the advisory board for the newly established Rutgers Energy Institute. His research interests include the study of mechanisms that control programmed cell death and stress tolerance in plants, the regulation of global gene expression via chromatin organization, and more recently, the application of genetic engineering approaches in higher plants to facilitate cellulosic fermentation of plant biomass. Dr. Lam is author on over 130 publications in journals including Science and Nature and has been awarded five patents relating to biotechnology methods. In addition to actively translating advances from basic research to applications in the field, he is also developing close ties in education and research with partners in Brazil, Germany and China.