Research and Teaching Interests

Dr. Kenne is a transplant from Omaha, Nebraska who was brought on as research professor after earning his PhD at the University of South Carolina. Between much of his youth being spent on his grandparent's farm and with extended family sprawled throughout rural Iowa, and his father's career working from meat packing plants to the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service, Gabe is no stranger to agriculture or the ways in which food gets from farm to table. Gabe's background is focused on molecular biology, beginning with a degree in Biology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, he then spent 3 years working in human genetics before going back to school to earn a Master of Public Health in Infectious Diseases and Zoonosis from Kansas State University and then to South Carolina to earn his PhD in Environmental Health Sciences. Gabe is currently focusing his interdisciplinary background back towards his Midwestern roots and is examining ways to better understand healthy soils in agricultural systems and how to promote, educate, and share environmentally responsible agricultural practices. He is currently exploring nutrient cycling potential within differentially managed agricultural soils, and other ways in which the relationship between plants and soil microbes can produce and healthy crops while regenerating degraded agricultural systems.