Mengmeng Gu to Bring Years of Horticulture Experience to New Leadership Role
Mengmeng Gu
This summer, Dr. Mengmeng Gu will join the Colorado State University (CSU) College of Agricultural Sciences as department head for the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture. Gu is a familiar name to many in the ornamental and nursery industry and brings experience in both horticulture and landscape design to her new leadership role, with a focus on sustainability and a career-long commitment to teaching, research, and outreach.
“We are excited to have Dr. Gu join our team as the leader of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture,” says James Pritchett, Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Director of the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station. “Dr. Gu’s record of accomplishments and energetic leadership style means that she is perfectly matched with the opportunities for inspiring career trajectories for our students, elevating our engagement with communities and industry, and research to address critical challenges of society.”
Gu currently serves as a professor in Texas A&M University’s Department of Horticultural Sciences and Extension Ornamental Horticulturist with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. She takes a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to her work in ornamental horticulture, working closely with partners in other disciplines within agriculture and from the green industry. Her research focuses on using biochar, an organic charcoal-like substance made from agricultural waste, as a sustainable alternative to peat moss in potting mix and holistic management of crapemyrtle bark scale, a new insect pest in the Southeastern U.S. that affects the country’s most common flowering tree.
Gu earned her Ph.D. in Plant Science and Horticulture from the University of Arkansas after earning a B.S. and M.S. in landscape architecture from Beijing Forestry University. She joined Texas A&M in 2012.
“Dr. Gu’s contributions and active engagement with industry and community stakeholders is noteworthy,” Pritchett says. “She is well known for her thoughtful and rigorous approach, and now she has the opportunity to lead a department at CSU whose legacy is the same.”
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