Featured Graduate Student

Jordan Hartman

PhD Student, Cooperstone Lab, HCS

Ohio State University

hartman.635@buckeyemail.osu.edu

Degree Information: 

MSc Horticultural Sci, NCSU

Jordan Hartman

Biography: 

Jordan first merged his interests in genetics, horticulture, and chemistry during his MS at NC State where he worked with watermelon populations that were segregating for phytonutrient abundance. He recently (Summer 2019) began his PhD in Horticulture and Crop Science at OSU to deepen his understanding of the relationship between plant chemistry and genetics with the added context of sensory science and human health implications. More specifically, Jordan investigates the chemical basis and underpinning genetic factors of bitterness in wild tomatoes via metabolomics, a chemical profiling technique that gives a10,000-foot view of “all” chemical components of a biological system (in his case, the system is a tomato fruit). Ask him about why he put “all” in quotations and what makes the tomato both a fruit AND a vegetable.