Establishing the Joanne Chory Breakthrough in Plant Science Award

ASPB invites members, colleagues, friends, and supporters to help establish the Joanne Chory Breakthrough in Plant Science Award. This award will be supported by a new permanently restricted endowed fund created to recognize and remember in perpetuity Dr. Joanne Chory’s extraordinary scientific legacy.

This award honors Dr. Joanne Chory, whose seminal discoveries have transformed modern plant biology and deepened our understanding of how plants integrate environmental and developmental signals to regulate growth, physiology, and adaptation. This award celebrates innovation, originality, and lasting impact in plant science, reflecting Dr. Chory’s enduring legacy as a visionary leader and mentor who helped define multiple frontiers of plant biology.

Each Joanne Chory Breakthrough in Plant Science Award will honor one scientist  who has made breakthrough discoveries in the fundamental mechanisms of plant biology, particularly those whose findings have illuminated general biological principals that transcend across species or disciplinary boundaries. The award will recognize the innovation, originality, rigor, and enduring impact that characterized Dr. Chory’s career.

Your gift will create a lasting legacy

Every contribution to this campaign is intended to become part of a permanently restricted fund. This means that the donated principal will be preserved in perpetuity and will not be spent. Instead, ASPB will invest the funds, and the investment earnings will provide ongoing support for the Joanne Chory Breakthrough in Plant Science Award.

In other words:

  • Your gift is not a one time contribution that will be spent for a current program or operating expense.
  • Your gift will be added to a permanent endowment established in Dr. Chory’s name.
  • The orginal donated amount – known as the principal – will remain in perpetuity.
  • Investment earnings from the fund will be used to support the award and its associated recognition, consistent with the fund’s stated purpose.

By contributing, you will help ensure that Dr. Chory’s influence on plant science continues to be recognized for generations to come.

 Make a commitment

ASPB is first seeking commitments totaling at least $120,000 to establish the permanently restricted fund and launch the award on a sustainable basis.

If you would like to participate, please complete the form below to indicate the amount you intend to contribute. Submitting this form is an expression of your intention to give; it is not the payment of your gift.

ASPB will not request payment until the collective commitment goal of $120,000 has been reached. Once that threshold is met, ASPB will send you an invoice for the amount of your commitment, along with instructions for completing your gift.

Important gift designation notice

By contributing to the Joanne Chory Breakthrough in Plant Science Award Fund, you acknowledge that your gift will be accepted as a permanently restricted gift to ASPB’s endowment and designated exclusively to support the Joanne Chory Breakthrough in Plant Science Award.

The principal of your gift will be held and invested in perpetuity. ASPB will use only the investment earnings made available from the fund to support the award, subject to ASPB’s applicable investment, spending, and gift-acceptance policies. If the award’s original purpose ever becomes impossible, impracticable, or no longer consistent with ASPB’s mission, ASPB will apply the fund to a similar or related purpose in accordance with its Gift Acceptance Policy and applicable laws.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

I understand that:

  • This submission reflects my intention to make a gift and is not my payment.
  • ASPB will request payment only after collective commitments of at least $120,000 have been secured.
  • My completed gift will be designated as a permanently restricted contribution to ASPB’s endowment for the Joanne Chory Breakthrough in Plant Science Award.
  • The principal of my gift will be preserved in perpetuity, and investment earnings will be used to support the award, subject to ASPB’s applicable policies.
  • If the award’s stated purpose can no longer be fulfilled, ASPB may use the fund for a similar or related charitable purpose consistent with its Gift Acceptance Policy.

I agree with and understand the Gift Acceptance Policy, including that my donation is a permanently restricted donation.: