Rob Halgren is an academic specialist in CIT and is the site coordinator for the Michigan Science Olympiad tournament, which brings approximately 2,000 middle and high school students to MSU every spring for a science based tournament of 23 different events, ranging from anatomy to aeronautics. Dr. Halgren’s duties include planning all aspects of this tournament and supervising a team of highly motivated former Science Olympiad competitors who are now undergraduate employees at MSU. He also teaches undergraduate biology courses at Lansing Community College. After graduating from MSU in 1992 with a BS in biochemistry, he continued his studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL to complete a PhD in tumor cell biology and carcinogenesis in 1998.
Halgren’s research and professional interests include science communication (with an emphasis on K-12 and undergraduate students), bioinformatics, cancer biology, and horticulture. Outside of his professional interests, he is a fully accredited American Orchid Society judge and nationally recognized speaker on orchid cultivation and breeding. He is sole owner of Littlefrog Farm, which focuses on novelty orchid hybridizing, and is president of the Greater Lansing Orchid Society.
