Charles Reid Barnes Life Membership Award
This is the oldest award, established in 1925 at the first annual meeting of the Society through the generosity of Dr. Charles A. Shull. It honors Dr. Charles Reid Barnes, the first professor of plant physiology at the University of Chicago. It is an annual award for meritorious work in plant biology; it provides a life membership in the Society to an individual who is at least sixty years old. Membership is a requirement for the award, and, if appropriate, every fifth award should be made to an outstanding plant biologist from outside the United States.
2022 Winner: Peggy G. Lemaux
Peggy G. Lemaux began her career with degrees in microbiology and then pivoted to plant biology in her second postdoc position. Early in her 30-year university career in plant biology, Peggy became a world leader in cereal transformation. Her group developed technologies for the efficient transformation of many cereal and grass species, concurrently devising strategies to stabilize transgene expression. More recently, Peggy’s research has focused on genome editing and transcriptomic analyses of drought-impacted, field-grown plants and their microbiomes. Among Peggy’s accomplishments as a professor of cooperative extension, she created several highly successful outreach programs. The most recent is the Communication, Literacy & Education for Agricultural Research (CLEAR) program, which encourages early career scientists to develop strategies for communicating science to a broad public audience. Peggy has served the University of California in many capacities, and she served as ASPB’s President in 2012-2013.
Hailing Jin , Chair (2021-2024)
Peggy Lemaux, Past Winner (2022-2023)
Alan Jones (2020-2023)
Karen Koch (2023-2025)
Sylvia Lee, Staff Liaison