Rate My Professor Adrian Hegeman

Adrian Hegeman is a Professor in the Departments of Horticultural Science and Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He serves as Interim Department Head of the Department of Horticultural Science and holds an appointment as Professor in the Microbial and Plant Genomics Institute. Hegeman earned a B.A. in Biochemistry from Oberlin College in 1992 and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2001. He conducted postdoctoral studies from 2002 to 2007 in the laboratory of Michael R. Sussman at the University of Wisconsin–Madison before joining the University of Minnesota in 2007. He progressed through the ranks, serving as Assistant Professor around 2010 and Associate Professor by 2016 prior to his current full professorship.

Hegeman holds the Luby Family Honeycrisp Endowed Chair for Fruit Crop Innovation and received the 2025 University of Minnesota Unit Service Award. His research focuses on plant biochemistry, plant metabolomics, mass spectrometry, and botanical natural products. Key projects examine metabolic differences in Vitis vinifera and V. riparia hybrids related to grape berry color, flavor, aroma, and stress tolerance; botanical origins of propolis; mechanistic enzymology of plant hormone auxin biosynthesis; bioactive constituents of kava (Piper methysticum); and antimicrobial and antioxidant compounds from Minnesota native and naturalized prairie plants for use as preservatives in cosmetics. As director of the Plant Metabolomics Laboratory, he develops advanced metabolic flux analysis methods using stable isotope labeling, LC-/GC-MS, and microsampling techniques for studying non-steady-state conditions in crops like Arabidopsis, maize, soybean, and Brassica rapa under abiotic stress. Hegeman co-authored the textbook Enzymatic Reaction Mechanisms (Oxford University Press, 2007) with Perry A. Frey. Selected publications include Convergent evolution of a novel blood-red nectar pigment in vertebrate-pollinated flowers (PNAS, 2022, co-author); Deterrent effects of essential oils on spotted-wing drosophila (Insects, 2020); Metabolic signatures of Arabidopsis thaliana abiotic stress responses (Stress Biology, 2022); and Genetic analysis of stilbenoid profiles in grapevine stems (Horticulture Research, 2019). His work has contributed to NSF-funded projects, including a $1.3 million grant studying nectar chemistry and over $1.9 million for plant metabolism research.