William "Bill" Rooney
Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1992
Email: wlr@tamu.edu
Voice: 979.845.2151
Office: Foundation Seed Building
Research. Develop improved parental lines of sorghum to create grain sorghum hybrids for feed and food uses. Develop improved sorghum lines to produce forage sorghum hybrids for 
grazing, silage, and hay production. Develop sorghum germplasm with enhanced resistance to disease and abiotic stresses for use in sorghum breeding programs. Conduct and publish research on the application of genetics (both classical and molecular) to sorghum improvement.
Teaching. My program provides graduate training (both M.S. and Ph.D.) in plant breeding and genetics with specific emphasis on sorghum breeding and genetics. Training emphasizes applied science with significant interaction with molecular genetics and its application to breeding programs. Graduate teaching responsibility includes an advanced graduate class in plant breeding and genetics. Undergraduate teaching responsibilities include a crop production class focused on crops of agronomic importance in the U.S. and Texas.