Dave Douches

After the inaugural Earth Day in 1970, Dave Douches started a garden in the backyard of the two-story home he shared with his parents and two sisters in New Jersey. His interest in plants grew and he went on to study plant breeding at Rutgers University. He was introduced to potato breeding and genetics at North Carolina State University during his graduate studies. He decided to continue his studies in potato while at UC Davis where he earned his Ph.D. At UC Davis he began to view the potato with a different lens. Currently Dave is Director of Plant Breeding Genetics and Biotechnology Graduate Program in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University. He is also the Project Director of the Feed the Future Biotechnology Potato Partnership working in Bangladesh and Indonesia.