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Shuijin Hu was born in Jixi County, Anhui Province, China, in 1963. He received his B.S. in agronomy from Hefei Institute of Economics and Technology, China, and his M.S. degree in plant genetics and breeding from Nanjing Agricultural University, China. His Ph.D. in ecology was obtained at the University of Georgia, Athens. Dr. Hu was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of California, Davis, a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a postdoctoral researcher in Environmental Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Hu joined the faculty at North Carolina State University in 1999. Dr. Hu has made several significant contributions to our understanding of suppressive soils and control of soilborne root pathogens using a unique microbial approach. Dr. Hu’s research was the first demonstration of an integrated approach wherein soil nitrogen and carbon cycling and microbial community dynamics were monitored and related to disease incidence or relative growth of the pathogen in relation to disease suppression. He found that time-dependent microbial processes or their metabolites may significantly contribute to growth suppression of P. ultimum, whereas competition for available N or C played only a minor role in suppression of this pathogen. Dr. Hu also described a multiphasic curve for the decomposition of cellulose residues in crop debris based on initial activity of bacteria, followed by predominately fungal decomposition of the substrate. His ecological approach to community composition and microbial nutrient flow in soil-crop systems has advanced our understanding of disease suppressive soils. In addition to his strong research program, Dr. Hu is an effective instructor and teaches two courses in soil ecology.
