Mary Lou Guerinot, the Ronald and Deborah Harris Professor in the Sciences at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, has received the Philip N. Benfey Arabidopsis Community Lifetime Achievement Award. The honor recognizes scientists who have significantly advanced research on Arabidopsis thaliana, a small weed that has become the standard model for plant biology, and mentored the next generation of researchers in plant biology.
For several decades, Dr. Guerinot has been a pioneer in the use of genetic approaches to study metal transport in plants. Her work has put a particular emphasis on the fundamental mechanisms of uptake, transport, and storage of iron and zinc — two of the four major micronutrients deficient in two billion people worldwide. This research has significantly contributed to the development of crops that offer sustainable solutions for malnutrition. Dr. Guerinot is also known for developing the field of ionomics, which draws on genomics and bioinformatics to map the connections between a plant’s genes and its mineral makeup.
A Dartmouth faculty member since 1985, Dr. Guerinot holds faculty appointments in biological sciences, molecular and cellular biology, and microbiology and molecular pathogenesis. She has previously served in several leadership roles at the Ivy League school, including chair of the department of biological sciences, associate dean of faculty for the sciences, and vice provost. Since 2022, she has also served as a nonresident fellow of the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in La Jolla, California.
Dr. Guerinot is a graduate of Cornell University, where she majored in biology. She received her Ph.D. in biology from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada.