The College of Arts and Sciences has appointed Dr. Jen Forbey as the Boise State Foundation Board Endowed Professor of Biotechnology for Nature-Based Economies.
This endowed professorship, made possible through the vision and generosity of the Boise State University Foundation Board members and matched by the Foundation itself, reflects a strong, shared commitment to Boise State’s future and its Unbridled fundraising campaign. The Foundation Board hopes to award four endowed professorships in total across the university.
This particular endowed professorship is designed to retain and support a leading scholar whose work advances biotechnology-driven innovation for nature-based economies and contributes directly to Boise State’s plans to become an R1 institution according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning, indicating the highest level of research activity.
“Dr. Forbey is both an exceptional researcher and brilliant colleague. In addition to having an outstanding research portfolio, she consistently works to lift up others across the university and help them do their best work,” said College of Arts and Sciences Interim Dean Marie-Anne de Graaff. “I am grateful to the University Foundation for this opportunity to recognize Dr. Forbey’s contributions and support her future research and mentoring activities.”
A leader in biotechnology research
Forbey’s research explores the interactions between toxic plants and the herbivores that eat them, including some local plants and animals.
Here in Idaho’s sagebrush steppe ecosystem, local plants like sagebrush are packed with toxins. These chemical defenses keep most herbivores away, but some creatures have evolved to detect toxicity signals. They can use those abilities to identify and feed on less toxic specimens of certain plants.
Forbey uses molecular and remote sensing biotechnology to study the co-evolutionary relationship between toxic plants and the animals who eat them. She discovers natural products that enhance therapeutics and the economic value of natural ecosystems. Her work has both local and global implications, and has netted over $39.77 million in research awards.
Enhancing Boise State’s research profile
In addition to her groundbreaking research, Forbey is also a leader in building research capacity at Boise State. More than $1.9 million from her grants has gone towards building research capacity on campus.
Forbey has represented Boise State at a number of biotechnology conferences supporting translational research to turn new scientific discoveries into practical results for human health. She was Boise State’s lead at the Regional Innovation Engines conference to grow regional capacity for innovation, research translation and workforce development across the forest and rangeland-based economies in the Mountain West.
Currently, Forbey is a faculty ambassador for Boise State’s Accelerating Research Translation award called Translation Research Ambassadors Network for Strengthening Institutional Capacity and Fostering a Responsive and Open Mindset, or TRANSFORM.
Forbey’s grants have also funded 12 Ph.D. students in the Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, Computing, Biomolecular Sciences, and Engineering programs. The students are future leaders in biotechnology research here in Idaho and across the nation, and critical to Boise State’s progress towards R1 status.
Forbey will assume the endowed professorship effective in fall 2026. The five-year endowment will last from 2026 to 2031, during which time Forbey will receive a research stipend to catalyze externally-funded research, interdisciplinary partnerships, translational innovation and graduate student mentoring.