ASPB News THE NEWSLETTER OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS Volume 38, Number 4 July/August 2011 Inside This Issue ASPB Members Elected to 2011 Class President’s Letter of National Academy of Sciences 75th Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Section ASPB members Steven E. Jacobsen and James A. recognition of their distinguished and continuing Birchler were elected to the National Academy of Sci- achievements in original research. The total number ASPB Welcomes Patti ences (NAS) on May 3, 2011, at the Academy’s 148th of active members is now 2,113, and the total Lockhart as New Managing Editor annual meeting. In addition, ASPB member Jiayang number of foreign associates is 418. Foreign associ- Li was named as a foreign associate of the Academy. ates are nonvoting members of the Academy, with Kathy Munkvold Selected This election admitted a total of 72 new mem- citizenship outside the United States. as ASPB Plant Science Policy Fellow bers and 18 foreign associates from 15 countries in continued on page 13 HHMI and GBMF Name 15 ASPB Members as Investigators Two of the nation’s largest private sponsors of in fundamental plant science, and we hope it will research have taken a giant leap into plant science. encourage others in the United States to make The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and analogous commitments.” the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF) Vicki L. Chandler, a former ASPB president who have named 15 of the country’s most innovative is GBMF chief program officer for science, said that plant scientists as HHMI-GBMF Investigators. the sponsors “believe the research will generate high- These 15 plant scientists—all of whom are ASPB impact discoveries with implications for a range of members—will share $75 million in flexible support intertwined concerns facing society: food production, from HHMI and GBMF over the next five years. human health, protection of the environment, and The two organizations formed their collabora- identification of renewable energy resources.” With tion because of concerns that basic plant science plant science at the center of so many contemporary research has been historically underfunded in national and international priorities, HHMI and the United States. HHMI President Robert Tjian GBMF felt that the time was right to make strategic in- explained that “we think the creation of our joint vestments to fuel discoveries that have a major impact. program underscores the importance of investing continued on page 14 The ASPB News is delivered online as well as in print. Members will be alerted by e-mail when a new issue is posted. The ASPB News welcomes member feedback. Contact the editor at [email protected]. ASPB Executive Committee & Staff CONTENTS President Nicholas Carpita 765-494-4653 President-elect Steven C. Huber 217-265-0909 Immediate Past President Tuan-hua David Ho 314-935-4632 ASPB Members Elected to 2011 Class 1 Secretary Judy Callis 530-752-1015 of National Academy of Sciences Treasurer Jonathan Monroe 540-568-6649 HHMI and GBMF Name 15 ASPB Chair, Board of Trustees Mary Lou Guerinot 603-646-2527 Members as Investigators Chair, Publications Committee Sally Mackenzie 402-472-6997 Chair, Women in Plant Biology Committee Marta Laskowski 440-775-6596 Chair, Minority Affairs Committee MariaElena B. Zavala 818-677-3342 4 President’s Letter Chair, Education Committee Erin Dolan 540-231-2692 Chair, International Committee Leon V. Kochian 607-255-2454 Chair, Membership Committee Mel Oliver 573-882-9645 5 Northeastern Section Meets at University of New Hampshire Chair, Committee on Public Affairs Richard Sayre 314-587-1437 Elected Members Gloria Muday 336-758-5316 Katherine W. Osteryoung 517-355-4685 9 People Marguerite Varagona 636-737-6394 Sectional Representatives Midwestern John Kiss 513-529-5428 21 Membership Corner Northeastern Estelle Hrabak 603-862-0716 Southern Timothy D. Sherman 251-460-7529 23 Public Affairs Update Mid-Atlantic Zhongchi Liu 301-405-1586 Western David Logan 306-966-4409 26 ASPB Education Forum Executive director Crispin Taylor, ext. 115 [email protected] Executive and governance affairs manager Donna Gordon, ext. 131 [email protected] 31 New Staff Assoc. director of finance & administration Kim Kimnach, ext. 140 [email protected] Accounts receivable specialist Stephanie Liu-Kuan, ext. 143 [email protected] Junior accountant Jotee Pundu, ext. 144 [email protected] Director of meetings, marketing, & membership Jean Rosenberg, ext. 110 [email protected] Deadline for November/December 2011 Membership, meetings, & marketing specialist Shoshana Kronfeld, ext. 122 [email protected] ASPB News: October 5, 2011 Subscriptions manager Suzanne Cholwek, ext. 141 [email protected] Subscriptions assistant Linda Palmer, ext. 142 [email protected] Director of public affairs Adam Fagen, ext. 114 [email protected] Plant science policy fellow Kathy Munkvold, ext. 121 [email protected] Education foundation coordinator Katie Engen, ext. 116 [email protected] Director of publications Nancy A. Winchester, ext. 117 [email protected] Publications assistant Diane McCauley, ext. 133 [email protected] Managing editor Patti Lockhart, ext. 119 [email protected] Science writer, Plant Physiology Peter Minorsky, 845-878-4570 [email protected] Production manager, Plant Physiology Jon Munn, ext. 130 [email protected] Manuscript manager, Plant Physiology Leslie (Ash) Csikos, ext. 125 [email protected] Senior features editor, The Plant Cell Nancy Eckardt, 970-495-9918 [email protected] Features editor, The Plant Cell Mary Williams, +44-141-339-4960 [email protected] Production manager, The Plant Cell Susan Entwistle, ext. 118 [email protected] Manuscript manager, The Plant Cell Annette Kessler, ext. 120 [email protected] ASPB News is distributed to all ASPB members and is published six times ASPB News annually, in odd-numbered months. It is edited and prepared by ASPB staff from material provided by ASPB members and other interested Headquarters Office parties. 15501 Monona Drive Rockville, MD 20855-2768 USA Copy deadline is the 5th day of the preceding even-numbered month Phone: 301-251-0560 (for example, December 5 for January/February publication). Submit Fax: 301-279-2996 copy by e-mail whenever possible; submit all other copy by mail, not by fax. [email protected] Contact: Nancy A. Winchester, Editor, ASPB News, 15501 Monona Drive, Rockville, MD 20855-2768 USA; [email protected]; 301-296-0904. © 2011 American Society of Plant Biologists G_`c`gj>i\\eGfn\iC<;jdXb\pflic`^_ki\Z`g\jnfib @dgifm\^ifnk_Xe[jXm\\e\i^p <oXZkcpkle\c`^_kc\m\cXe[jg\Zkildkf^ifnk_Zfe[`k`fej >fc[Y`fefnf]]\ijG_`c`gjC<;k\Z_efcf^p]fidlck`cXp\iZlck`mXk`fe :Xcc(%/''%)+/%.-'0fi^fkf^fc[Y`f%Zfd]fidfi\`e]fidXk`fe >fc[9`fk\Z_efcf^pL%J%I\^`jkiXk`feEf*#),.#0). #>fc[Y`fL%J%I\^`jkiXk`feEf*#),.#0)- Xe[>9KL%J%I\^`jkiXk`feEf*#),/#'.* Xi\i\^`jk\i\[kiX[\dXibjf]>fc[9`fk\Z_efcf^p#@eZ%G?@C@GJ`jXi\^`jk\i\[kiX[\dXibf]Bfe`ebc`ab\G_`c`gj<c\Zkife`Zj%E%M% ASPB News, Vol. 38, No. 3 • 3 President’s Letter Plants and Bioenergy “…cell walls are an enormously dent’s interest in plant research synthases; Chris Somerville, who champi- important source of economi- could be fostered specifically in oned Arabidopsis as a genetic model for cell cally important raw material. energy-related disciplines. Some wall research; and Ken Keegstra, who focused Examples include the modifica- six years later, the PRL was sited on the biosynthesis of xyloglucan. Ken was a tion of pectin cross-linking or at MSU, and among the legend- postdoc in the lab of another giant in ASPB, cell–cell adhesion to increase ary ASPB members who became Peter Albersheim, whose AEC-funded group, shelf life of fruits and vegeta- its first faculty was the renowned now the Complex Carbohydrate Research bles, the enhancement of biochemist Joe Varner, who Center in Georgia, proposed the first mo- dietary fiber contents of cereals, cloned the first gene that en- lecular model of the plant cell wall in 1973. the improvement of yield and coded a cell wall protein. Resources for alternative energy research Nick Carpita quality of fibers, and the relative The OPEC oil embargo of quintupled during the Carter administration allocation of carbon to wall biomass for 1973 was a call to action that a petroleum- (2). However, with the crash of the oil mar- biofuels.” [italics added] based economy was dangerous for en- ket in the 1980s, the subsequent administra- Written in 1980, these lines are from the ergy—and, indeed, national—security, if that tion deemed the programs, which Carter abstract of one of my first grant proposals economy was based on imported sources. Al- envisioned as critical for U.S. future prosper- to the Department of Energy (DOE). What though the embargo ended a year later, huge ity and energy independence, unnecessary might sound particularly prescient today increases in gasoline prices continued after expenditures. Funding plummeted to pre- is actually quite far from it. For the past 30 President Jimmy Carter, himself a student Carter levels, and the policy initiatives for years or so, such a rationale could be found of nuclear engineering, came into office. In promoting a domestic bioenergy industry all in every plant biologist’s research proposal to response, Carter created the Energy Research but disappeared. But among the leadership study the structure and synthesis of the plant and Development Administration (ERDA) at DOE were those who steadfastly champi- cell wall. This was particularly ingrained in that a year later organized into a full-fledged oned the basic biology of plants as funda- many of us who were part of the mental to alternate energy solu- DOE Plant Research Lab (PRL) tions, and they stood behind on the campus of Michigan State its key institutions.