Dr. Mark Widrlechner served at the Horticulturist for the USDA-ARS at the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station between 1983 and 2011. There he curated ornamental and aromatic germplasm collections, provided guidance to the Station's curatorial team, and coordinated the evaluation of new woody landscape plants conducted by the NC-7 Regional Ornamental Plant Trials, a long-term, multi-site program to evaluate promising new woody plants under landscape conditions, focusing on conditions in the North Central US. After retiring from USDA-ARS, he became an affiliate faculty member in the Departments of Horticulture and of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology at ISU.

He has broad research interests related to risk-assessment modeling of invasive woody plants, systematics (especially of blackberries), and the conservation and management of plant genetic resources.