$75 Million for Plant Science Research to Feed the World’s Growing Population: Four Women Among the Grantees

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation of Palo Alto, California, are committing $75 million over the next five years to 15 of the nation’s most celebrated plant scientists. The research will attempt to develop methods for feeding the world’s population estimated to be 10 billion people by the year 2050. That’s an increase of 3 billion from today. And nearly one billion people today are malnourished.

Each of the 15 scientists will receive an initial five-year appointment to HHMI. Their appointments may be renewed for additional five-year terms, each contingent on a successful scientific review. The researchers will receive their full salary and benefits from HHMI. Research support will be provided. Four of the 15 plant scientists selected to conduct the important plant science research are women.

• Dominique Bergmann is an assistant professor of biology at Stanford University and an associate of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. She earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular and cellular biology at the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. in animal development at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

• Xuemei Chen is a professor of plant cell and molecular biology at the University of California at Riverside. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Peking University in Beijing and earned a Ph.D. in plant molecular genetics and biochemistry from Cornell University.

• Xinnian Dong is a professor of biology at Duke University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Wuhan University in China and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Northwestern University.

• Keiko Torii is a professor of biology at the University of Washington. She received a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Tsukuba in Japan.