Ralph is a Senior Partner in Exeteura, a new venture development company that provides expertise to build teams of entrepreneurs around a new technology/start-up.
Present Interests
Ralph continues to serve on several boards and consults for start-ups, major agricultural companies, and research institutions. He is also a Senior Partner in Exeteura new venture development company that provides expertise to build teams of entrepreneurs around a new technology/start-up. He is also a Venture Partner for the St. Louis based Lewis and Clark Venture Fund focused on agriculture.
Professional Interests
Since coming to Washington University in 1998, Ralph has maintained an active research program and training of graduate students while serving as Chairman of Biology until 2008. In 2008-09 he was appointed Interim Dean of Arts & Sciences and from 2010-2015 as Dean of School of Engineering & Applied Science.
Since receiving his Ph.D. in Biology from Yale University, he served on the faculties at Oregon State University and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He is internationally known for his plant science research, and widely recognized for his significant and continued contributions to the life sciences (>180 publications). Most recently his research has focused on using genomics and systems approaches to the study of drought tolerance in plants. He was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society of Plant Biologists. He is an Advisory Board Trustee, a Fellow, and recipient of the 2015 Science Leadership Award from the Academy of Science of St. Louis. For five years he was editor-in-chief of The Plant Cell, the premier journal of plant biology, and served for eight years as a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors of Science.
