Dean is the Chairperson and a Professor of Horticulture in the Environmental Horticulture Department at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. He grew up on the same 200-acre tree and shrub production nursery in northern Illinois with his twin brother Dave. He received his bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness-Ornamental Horticulture from Illinois State University in 1992. For the next year he worked on the nursery and started a landscape division. During this time, he completed the Illinois Certified Nurseryman Professional certification. Dean completed his master’s and doctorate degrees in horticulture from the University of Georgia in 1995 and 1999, respectively. Dean has held horticultural faculty positions at the University of New Hampshire and the University of Tennessee. He has taught courses ranging from Introductory Horticulture to Plant Nutrition. Dean has published 119 research papers, 6 book chapters, and holds 3 provisional patents in the areas of vegetable crop physiology and plant improvement and has received numerous research awards. Dean served on the American Society for Horticultural Science’s Executive Board as the Research Division Vice-president from 2015-2017 and was elected a Fellow in the society in 2018. He also sits on USDA advisory council for the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR).
Dean and David were interviewed on the podcast, Can I Get a Retake? Listen below!