MPGI Distinguished Scientists Lecturer Series

The Distinguished Scientists Lecturer Series features the latest research of prominent scientists including members of the National Academy of Science. In addition to presenting a seminar, speakers join University faculty and their members for research discussions. Speakers engage with graduate students and postdoctoral scientists about the pros and cons of careers in academia, industry, or government, integrity in research, and other areas of interest for the new scientists.

Previous lecturers:

2014	Dr. James Carrington	President, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center	RNA Silencing Mechanisms in Plants

2011	Dr. David Pellman	Professor of Cell Biology, Margaret M. Dyson Professor of Pediatric Oncology, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
	Dr. James Van Etten	William Allington Distinguished Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Nebraska - Lincoln Center for Plant Science Innovation
	Dr. Simon Chan	Assistant Professor, Plant Biology, University of California - Davis	Engineering centromeres to produce haploid plants

2010	Dr. Kirsten Bomblies	Assistant Professor, Dept. of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University	Hypochondriacs of the plant world - linking resistance gene diversity and genetic incompatibility
	Dr. Michael R. Freeling	Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California – Berkeley	The evolutionary and gene regulatory consequences of polyploidy
	Michael Clegg	Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California - Irvine	What Can Genetics Tell Us About the History of Plant Domestication?
	J. Woodland Hastings	Paul C. Mangelsdorf Professor of Natural Sciences, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University	Evolutionary origins, biochemical mechanisms and the many different functions of bioluminescence

2009	Jeffrey Palmer	Distinguished Professor, Chair of the Department of Biology, Indiana University - Bloomington	Horizontal Gene Transfer Gone Wild in Mitochondrial Genomes:Whole Genome transfer, Chimeric Genes, and Compartment specific Mechanism
	Jasper Rine	Howard Hughes Professor and Professor of Genetics, Genomics and Development, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California - Berkeley	Looking for the Good News in the Human Genome

2008	Jim Tumlinson	Ralph O. Mumma Professor of Entomology and Director, Center for Chemical Ecology, Pennsylvania State University	Chemical signaling in plant-insect interactions
	Richard Dixon	Senior Vice President, Professor and Director of the Plant Biology Division, Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation	Biosynthesis and metabolic engineering of phenylpropanoid-derived compounds for plant quality trait enhancement
	Hugo Dooner	Professor, Department of Plant Biology & Pathology, Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ	Genome structure variation and meiotic recombination in maize
	Jeffrey Bennetzen	Giles Professor of Molecular Biology and Functional Genomics, Department of Genetics, University of Georgia	Hyper-instability and site directed recombination in otherwise highly unstable plant genomes

2007	Roger Beachy	President, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO	Searching for the Achilles heel in virus replication and genetic engineering to reduce disease in plants
	Michael F. Thomashow	Director, MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences & Microbiology, Michigan State University	Gene Regulons and Regulatory Networks Involved in Plant Cold Acclimation
	Roy Curtiss, III	Professor of Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Co-Director, Center for Infectious Diseases & Vaccinology, Arizona Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University	Genetic design and manipulation of Salmonella for delivery of protective antigens to immunized animal and human hosts
	Eugene Nester	Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Washington	Salicylic acid: More than just aspirin in Agrobacterium-plant interactions

2006	Marc Van Montagu	Emeritus Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, President of the European Federation of Biotechnology, Founder & Chair of the Institute of Plant Biotechnology for Developing Countries, Ghent University, Belgium	The GM-Plant Dispute
	James Tiedje	University Distinguished Professor of Microbiology, Director of the Center for Microbial Ecology, Michigan State University	Genomic windows into the diverse microbial world
	E. Peter Greenberg	Professor and Chair, Department of Microbiology, University of Washington	The Sociomicrobiology of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

2005	Bob Goldberg	Professor, Dept. of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology, University of California-Los Angeles	Using genomics to dissect plant embryo development in research and undergraduate education
	Todd Klaenhammer	Director, Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center, North Carolina State University	A light in the tract …genomic views of intestinal lactobacilli
	James Womack	Distinguished Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University	Status of bovine genomics: Sequencing and beyond

2004	Chris Somerville	Director of the Dept. of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Professor of Biological Sciences, Stanford University	Genetic dissection of cell wall structure and function

2003	Charles Arntzen	Co-Director, Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, Arizona Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University	Using the power of plant biotechnology to prevent infectious disease: The science of plant-derived vaccines
	Christopher T. Walsh	Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School	Antibiotic maturation by action of tailoring glycosyltransferases
	Paul R. Ehrlich	Center for Conservation Biology, Stanford University	Biology and the environment: A 2003 perspective
	Brian J. Staskawicz	Head of Section for Plant-Biotic Interactions, Department of Plant Biology, University of California-Berkeley	Bacterial proteins conferring disease immunity in plants

2002	Susan R. Wessler	Research Professor of Botany and Genetics, University of Georgia	Transposable elements: From genetics to genomics