Allen Chen will be presenting his Ph.D. dissertation research, which primarily investigates the potential of commercially available cultivars as well as unimproved wild accessions of perennial cool-season turfgrasses as groundcover for maize production. These grasses were interplanted between the otherwise conventionally grown maize rows to provide ecosystem services. Another project of Allen’s research is a growth chamber study investigating environmental cues that induces or breaks summer vegetative dormancy, a desirable trait for perennial groundcovers.