Martin Gibbs was an American biochemist and educator who worked in the field of carbon metabolism. The Martin Gibbs Medal, an award honoring individuals in plant sciences, is named in his honor.
Gene Ezia Robinson is an American entomologist, Director of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and National Academy of Sciences member. He pioneered the application of genomics to the study of social behavior and led the effort to sequence the honey bee genome. On February 10, 2009, his research was famously featured in an episode of The Colbert Report whose eponymous host referred to the honey Dr. Robinson sent him as "pharmaceutical-grade hive jive".
The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) is an interdisciplinary facility for genomics research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The Institute was built in 2006 to centralize biotechnology research at the University of Illinois. Current research at the IGB explores the genomic bases of a wide range of phenomena, including the progression of cancer, the ecological impact of global change, tissue and organ growth, and the diversity of animal behavior.
Gloria M. Coruzzi is an American molecular biologist specializing in plant systems biology and evolutionary genomics.
Christine Helen Foyer is professor of plant science at the University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. She is President Elect of the Association of Applied Biologists, the General Secretary of the Federation of European Societies of Plant Biologists, an elected Board Member of the American Society of Plant Biologists and a Member of the French Academy of Agriculture. She has published and co-authored many papers on related subjects.
Harris A. Lewin, an American biologist, is a professor of evolution and ecology and Robert and Rosabel Osborne Endowed Chair at the University of California, Davis. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2011, Lewin won the Wolf Prize in Agriculture for his research into cattle genomics. Lewin chairs the working group for the Earth BioGenome Project, a moonshot for biology that aims to sequence, catalog, and characterize the genomes of all of Earth’s eukaryotic biodiversity over a period of 10 years. Lewin is a founding co-editor of the Annual Review of Animal Biosciences, first published in 2013.
Mary Lou Guerinot is an American molecular geneticist who works as Ronald and Deborah Harris Professor in the Sciences at Dartmouth College. Her research concerns the cellular uptake and regulation of metal ions.
Susanne von Caemmerer FRS is a professor and plant physiologist in the Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology at the Australian National University; and the Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis. She has been a leader in developing and refining biochemical models of photosynthesis.
Maria Harrison is a plant biologist, William H. Crocker Scientist professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Science, and adjunct professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University. Harrison's lab, including post-doctoral, graduate, undergraduate, and intern students, utilizes a combination of molecular, cell biology, genetic, and genomic techniques to investigate the developmental mechanisms underlying the symbiosis and phosphate transfer between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and the roots of model legume Medicago truncatula. Among Harrison's most notable findings are that plants use hormone signaling to regulate AM fungi symbiosis and that phosphate transport is critical to the maintenance of this symbiosis. These discoveries have allowed the field of fungal-plant interactions to pursue new research questions including future manipulation of phosphate acquisition in valuable crop species.
Karen Koch is a plant biologist in the horticultural science department in the University of Florida. She is a professor in the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology (PMCB) Program, Horticultural Sciences Department, and Genetics Institute at University of Florida.
Wendy Farmer Boss is an American botanist and the current William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on plant physiology and phosphoinositide mediated signalling in plants. Phosphoinositols are derived from the phospholipids found in plasma membrane of the cell. Phosphoinositols are known to be key molecules in signal transduction pathways. The role of this chemical in plants is however not well understood and Dr. Boss' research has contributed significantly towards understanding this topic.
Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) is a translational research project that is genetically engineering plants to photosynthesize more efficiently to increase crop yields. RIPE aims to increase agricultural production worldwide, particularly to help reduce hunger and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia by sustainably improving the yield of key food crops including soybeans, rice, cassava and cowpeas. The RIPE project began in 2012, funded by a five-year, $25-million dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2017, the project received a $45 million-dollar reinvestment from the Gates Foundation, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, and the UK Government's Department for International Development. In 2018, the Gates Foundation contributed an additional $13 million to accelerate the project's progress.
Stephen Patrick Long is a British-born American environmental plant physiologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences studying how to improve photosynthesis to increase the yield of food and biofuel crops. He is the Stanley O. Ikenberry Chair Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois and Distinguished Professor in Crop Sciences at Lancaster University. His work, published in Science, proved that photosynthesis can be manipulated to increase plant productivity—an idea once considered the holy grail of plant biology. Long has added to our understanding of the long-term impacts of climate change, such as rising levels of carbon dioxide and ozone on plants. He has briefed former President George W. Bush and the Vatican, as well as Bill Gates and Anne, Princess Royal, on food security and bioenergy.
Richard A. Dixon is distinguished research professor at the University of North Texas, a faculty fellow of the Hagler Institute of Advanced Study and Timothy C. Hall-Heep distinguished faculty chair at Texas A&M University.
Hartmut K. Lichtenthaler is a German botanist, plant physiologist and university professor.
Sabeeha Sabanali Merchant is a professor of plant biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies the photosynthetic metabolism and metalloenzymes In 2010 Merchant led the team that sequenced the Chlamydomonas genome. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2012.
Elizabeth Anna Ainsworth is an American plant physiologist currently employed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS). She also is an adjunct professor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and was awarded the 2018 Crop Science Society of America Presidential Award. She is known for her work concerning the effects of specific atmospheric pollutants, including ozone and carbon dioxide, on the productivity of selected major crops such as corn and soybeans.
Charles Roger Slack was a British-born plant biologist and biochemist who lived and worked in Australia (1962–1970) and New Zealand (1970–2000). In 1966, jointly with Marshall Hatch, he discovered C4 photosynthesis.
Deborah Pierson Delmer is an American plant pathologist, and professor emeritus at University of California, Davis. She was one of the first scientists to discover the enzymes and biochemical mechanisms for tryptophan synthesis.
Alice Cheung is an American biochemist who is a professor of molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research considers the molecular and cellular biology of polarization. She was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2020.
