Dr. Joe Scheerens

When I was a high school senior - my family sent me on a trip to visit my aunt in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Which happened to be the home of the USDA Research Center that studied cold hardiness of plants - they were working on strawberries at the time my aunt & I took a tour of the facility. The scientist who gave us the tour really inspired me.

Currently I have both state & federal grants to work on Pawpaws:

• How does one manage a pawpaw orchard
• Fruit quality
• Extracting pulp
• Problems facing the pawpaw industry + how to expand the industry

Started undergrad as an architecture student & then began looking into being a landscaper (my mom was an avid gardener & I liked plants) - before switching I decided to take a few horticulture classes to make sure I'd like it & fell in love with it.

I went on to the University of Wisconsin to get a masters & studied carrot quality. By the time I was done, I was tired of being cold & wanted to return to my family & the warmth of Arizona - I received my PhD from the University of Arizona & spent the next 10 years as a post-doc focused on domesticating native squashes.

Eventually, an opportunity at OSU came around for a new role primarily involved in strawberry breeding for quality (the project had funding from Smucker's), I've been at OSU ever since!

Currently, I'm involved in the North American Pawpaw Growers Association, North American Strawberry Growers Association & the North American Raspberry & Blackberry Association. 

I enjoy The North American Pawpaw Growers Association Meeting, as well as The Ohio Grape & Wine Conference!

New positions! We're at an exciting juncture in our departments history - we a redefining what our department does & where we're going. 

I love to do woodworking & home remolding projects (my house was built in 1916 - since we've moved in there's been 20 years of work to modernize it).