Her research program is devoted to developing superior sorghum lines to be used as lignocellulosic feedstock for biofuel production and to discovering genes/alleles associated with traits that confer superior biomass yield through the use of molecular and genomic technologies. The genetic knowledge generated in her research program will be applied to sorghum but could also be utilized for the genetic improvement of other crops. Sorghum was selected as the crop focus based on the genotypic and phenotypic variation of the species, and its potential as a biofuel source. Sorghum can be used to produce ethanol from grain, stover, sugars accumulated in the stems (sweet sorghums) or as a dedicated lignocellulosic biomass crop (particularly photoperiod-sensitive types).