Fellow of ASPB Award
Established in 2007, the Fellow of ASPB award may be granted in recognition of distinguished and long-term contributions to plant biology and service to the Society by current members in areas that include research, education, mentoring, outreach, and professional and public service. Current members of ASPB who have contributed to the Society for at least 10 years are eligible for nomination. Recipients of the Fellow of ASPB honor, which may be granted to no more than 0.2% of the current membership each year, receive a certificate of distinction and a lapel pin.
Erich Grotewald
Erich Grotewald is a professor in and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Michigan State University. He is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in the field of gene regulatory networks, biotechnology, and specialized metabolism. Erich has served the plant biology community extensively in various editorial roles, and even more importantly as director of the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center (ABRC). Under Erich’s leadership, the rapidly increasing volume of stock requests went from manual handling to distribution based on databases, barcoding, and robotics. Erich serves as a member of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) evaluation committee, and he is also a member of the ASPB Board of Trustees.
Georg Jander
Georg Jander, Professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research in Ithaca, NY, is an internationally recognized leader in studying the molecular aspects of plant–insect interactions, including understanding the metabolites associated with resistance to herbivory. Georg’s work spans numerous organisms, from aphids to lepidopteran caterpillars on the herbivore side to Arabidopsis, maize, and wormseed wallflower (Erysimum cheiranthoides) on the plant side. Georg’s service to ASPB has been extensive. He was a monitoring editor for Plant Physiology for seven years, and he served a term on the Publications Committee. He has been a member of the ASPB Program Committee, and he was an editor of The Arabidopsis Book. Georg has a distinguished and extensive record of mentoring undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs, and he has led multiple NSF REU grants that support underrepresented minority students and others with limited research opportunities at their home institution
Robert Ferl
Robert J. Ferl, Distinguished Professor and Assistant Vice President for Research at the University of Florida, was an early pioneer in plant molecular biology. His focus on the environmental regulation of gene activity in plants became pioneering work on plants in space flight, over 200 publications and patents, and recognition by NASA with the Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal. A fellow of multiple scientific societies, he has taken important leadership positions in American science, chaired National Academy studies, and written well-received textbooks. In addition to multiple teaching awards, he has mentored a large group of postdocs and students and had a unique impact on Space Biology in ASPB through his educational materials and presentations from his team at Southern Section and National Plant Biology annual meetings.
Jiming Jiang
Jiming Jiang is Foundation Professor in the Departments of Plant Biology and Horticulture and nterim chair of the Department of Plant Biology at Michigan State University. He is a leader in the field of cytogenetics and genetics. He has coupled his work in these areas with collaborations in genomics and bioinformatic technologies that have led to the sequencing and structural elaboration of centromeres in several species. Jiming has extensive experience serving the plant biology community in various editorial roles, including many years of service on the editorial board of Plant Physiology. To provide training in molecular cytogenetic techniques, his lab launched an annual Plant Cytogenetics Training Workshop, which ran annually from 2005 to 2016 and which trained nearly 200 scientists worldwide.
Pamela Ronald
Pamela Ronald, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Davis, is an internationally recognized leader in understanding plant disease resistance and an international spokesperson for the benefits of engineering crop plants. An elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Pam has presented and published extensively in the scientific and popular press, as well as engaging directly with the public, contributions for which she received the Mary Clutter Leadership in Science Public Service Award in 2019. Pam has served on multiple editorial boards and conference committees; and she has served ASPB as a member of the Stephen Hales Prize Committee and as a member and chair of the society’s Science Policy Committee (then known as the Public Affairs Committee). A recent recipient of the International Wolf Prize for Agriculture, Pam’s science and outreach have global impact.
Yunde Zhao
Yunde Zhao is a professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and the director of Plant Biology Food & Fuel for the 21st Century at the University of California San Diego. He is an intellectual and experimental leader in the field of auxin biosynthesis who, throughout his career, has advanced technological frontiers, from chemical genetics to genome editing. Yunde has extensive experience serving the plant biology community in various editorial roles. He has served for many years on the editorial board of Plant Physiology, which is published by ASPB, and in 2022 he was appointed to become the journal’s Editor-in-Chief.
Neelima Sinha, Chair (2018-2023)
Julia Frugoli (2020-2023)
Joe Kieber (2020-2023)
MariaElena Zavala (2023-2025)
Sylvia Lee, Staff Liaison