John Davis

2026 Sigma Xi Fellow

Statement

“I was nominated for full membership in Sigma Xi by my major advisor, Dr. Daniel Keathley, and formally inducted into the Michigan State University chapter in 1988.  I was in the final year of my PhD program, and Dr. Keathley had recently been awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor.  He nominated me in part to express his appreciation for the refereed journal articles we had co-authored, which helped him earn tenure.  I deeply appreciated this honor, and I recall the induction ceremony making me realize that perhaps I could make a career out of doing research.  I was surrounded by Sigma Xi members who I began to recognize as future colleagues.  It has been my privilege to be part of the Sigma Xi chapter at the University of Florida, especially at the ceremonies when graduate students are inducted as full members – it takes me back to 1988."

Biography

Dr. John Davis helps lead the research enterprise at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences as Senior Associate Dean for Research, and Associate Director of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station.  In this role, he supports nearly 600 faculty with research appointments in Gainesville and at research and education centers across the state who address challenges facing agriculture, natural resources and human systems.  He supports research at the 1,100 acre Plant Science Research and Education Unit in Citra, FL, where over 100 different crops are grown year-round.  John serves as director of the 9,500 acre Ordway-Swisher Biological Station (OSBS) in Melrose, FL, which is a research and demonstration site for ecosystem management and prescribed fire.  OSBS is also a core site within NSF’s National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) – a continental-scale observatory that provides comprehensive ecological data from across the U.S. that informs the nation’s safety, security, and well-being.  

John’s lifelong interests in agriculture and natural resources trace back to his midwestern roots in a central Illinois farming community, where he experienced many aspects of our nation’s food supply chain, without realizing it at the time.  During the summer months he worked at a grain elevator and on farms baling hay, walking beans, de-tasseling corn, and clearing brush, mowing hiking trails, and planting trees on the family tree farm.  These experiences, along with being an active member of the local 4-H club, instilled in John a deep-rooted understanding of farming communities and the land ethic they embody.

When John entered kindergarten, his mother began coursework at Illinois State University where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in education.  While John was in elementary school, she would occasionally take him to classes.  This early exposure to college had a big influence on John’s decision to pursue a career in academia.  During John’s graduate studies, his father expressed concern that John would “never get out of college” and “never get a real job.”  As it happens, his father was half right – John never got out of college.

John earned the BS in Biological Sciences at ISU, and the PhD in Plant Breeding & Genetics – Forestry at Michigan State University in Dr. Daniel Keathley’s laboratory.  He conducted postdoctoral studies at the University of Washington in Dr. Milton Gordon’s laboratory, with funding support from the USDA Forest Service research laboratory at Rhinelander, Wisconsin.  John has been at the University of Florida since 1993, where he is a tenured Professor in the School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences.  His research program in forest tree molecular biology and genetics helped establish the foundations for the genomics era in angiosperms (Populus spp., aka poplar or cottonwood trees) and gymnosperms (Pinus spp., aka pine trees).  During his career, John has collaborated with plant breeders, physiologists, pathologists, quantitative geneticists, cell biologists, and biochemists, as each colleague brought novel perspectives to bear on the functions of genes in forest trees.  His commitment to train the next generation of thought leaders is reflected in his past service as graduate coordinator for Genetics and Genomics, and Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology, both of which are campus-wide PhD programs.  In his current administrative role, John conducts research on research, which aims to identify the factors and interventions that support the success of faculty in developing their research programs and their careers in higher education.  John is an elected Full Member of Sigma Xi (1988), Fellow of Sigma Xi (2026), Member of Xi Sigma Pi (1989; the honor society for forestry and related sciences), and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2023).