Joseph R. Ecker 教授是国际植物分子生物学和植物基因组学研究领域的著名学者。曾作为主要负责人之一参与了拟南芥全基因组测序工作，拟南芥全基因组功能基因T-DNA文库构建，拟南芥功能基因全长cDNA文库构建，拟南芥全基因组表观遗传学测序工作。同时，Joseph R. Ecker教授在植物激素研究尤其是乙烯信号转导研究方面做出了突出贡献。他领导的科研小组所取得的成果处于世界领先水平，在“Cell”、“Science”，“Nature” 刊物上发表论文数十篇。

A complete BAC-based physical map of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome. Nature Genetics, (1999)
Sequence and analysis of chromosome 1 of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature, (2000)
Analysis of the genome sequence of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature, (2000)
Genome-wide Insertional mutagenesis of Arabidopsis thaliana. Science, (2003)
Empirical analysis of transcriptional activity in the Arabidopsis genome. Science, (2003)
Genome-wide high-resolution mapping and functional analysis of DNA methylation in Arabidopsis. Cell, (2006)
Genome-Wide High-Resolution Mapping of Exosome Substrates Reveals Hidden Features in the Arabidopsis Transcriptome. Cell, (2007)
Common Sequence Polymorphisms Shaping Genetic Diversity in Arabidopsis thaliana. Science, (2007)
Highly Integrated Single-Base Resolution Maps of the Epigenome in Arabidopsis. Cell, (2008)