Ingo Ensminger

Co-applicant

Ingo is a Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. He is interested in plant-environment interactions and the molecular, cellular and physiological mechanisms underlying plant responses to abiotic stresses. Research in his lab investigates the mechanisms by which global environmental change impacts metabolism and photosynthesis of plants from molecular to leaf, species and ecosystem level.

Students and researchers in Ingo’s lab contribute to better understand sensitivity and potential feedback of carbon uptake, growth and phenology of trees and forests and to mitigate consequences of climate change. Current research projects focus on (i) developing tools for monitoring carbon uptake and for high-throughput phenotyping of climate relevant physiological traits on various spatial and temporal scales using remote sensing and drones, and (ii) on examining the physiological, biochemical and molecular mechanisms that contribute to adaptation and acclimation of trees to warmer and drier climate.

Ingo completed his PhD at the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena, Germany, was a Postdoc at the MPI for Biogeochemistry, the MPI for Molecular Plant Physiology and the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He was a Researcher and group-leader at the Forest Research Institute in Freiburg, Germany, before he joined the University of Toronto. Ingo teaches plant physiology and global change biology. For more information visit his website.