Happenings

A SEASON OF CHANGES. This Fall, our Department welcomes two new faculty members, both with interests in changing forests: Michael Dietze constructs and uses ecological models to forecast effects of disturbance and climate change on forest dynamics; Surangi Punyasena uses fossil pollen records to reveal ancient climate patterns in neotropical forests. We also welcome a NEW DEPARTMENT HEAD, our own Feng Sheng Hu, while we bid a grateful farewell to outgoing head Evan DeLucia, as he assumes the G. William Arends Chair as Director of the School of Integrative Biology.

A pair of familiar Plant Biology voices were featured on a Voice of America report this summer entitled "RESEARCHERS IN ILLINOIS STUDY IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENT ON CROP YIELDS".  In a piece highlighting research at SoyFACE, Plant Biology professor Don Ort and graduate student Amy Beztelberger shared their expertise on the impact of elevated carbon dioxide on crop growth (“makes the plants more delicious to herbivorous insects” - Amy) and global grain reserves (“at dangerously low levels” - Don).  Click on Amy to watch the video (courtesy of VoA) or here to read the online story.

MOSQUITO BITES CAN GIVE YOU MORE THAN JUST AN ANNOYING ITCH. In some parts of the world, they can give you West Nile Virus or the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. DDT is still the insecticide of choice in areas of Africa where malaria is endemic and insecticide-resistant mosquito populations are therefore a serious concern.  Plant Biology affiliate and cytochrome P450 monooxygenase guru Mary Schuler and colleagues Ting-Lan Chiu, Zhimou Wen and Sanjeewa Rupasinghe used molecular modeling to support the hypothesis that elevated expression of the P450 enzyme CYP6Z1 is the basis of DDT detoxification and resistance in some African mosquito populations.  Click on the molecular model for the local story and a nifty 3D animation, here for the PNAS article and here for the report in Science Daily.

YOU WON'T FIND THESE AT YOUR LOCAL GARDEN CENTER. Plant Biology Afilliate Steven Hill held his annual plant sale over the July 4th weekend. As always, a dazzling array of tropicals, natives and exotics was on offer, including Voodoo Lilies (Sauromatum and Amorphothallus), vanilla orchids, thorny succulents, plus all manner of native and Caribbean mallows (family Malvaceae), Steve's speciality. Of course, Steven was ready with as much of a specimen's botanical background as even the most inquisitive customer could desire. Click on the Cup Plant (right) for some photos.

We mourn the passing of one of our Department’s most distinguished alumni, Arthur W. Galston, at the age of 88, following a long career of scientific achievement and profound humanitarian contributions.  Dr. Galston entered our then Botany Department in 1940 to study under the charismatic Harry Fuller who ignited his student’s lifelong interest in plant hormones and photobiology.  Completing his doctorate in just 3 years, Galston served in the Pacific in World War II and returned to enjoy nine highly productive years at Cal Tech where he generated the first data to suggest the now well-established flavin components of plant photoreceptors, phototropin and cryptochrome.  Finally settling at Yale, he continued to be an influential plant researcher as well as a preiminent teacher and author in the field of bioethics.  Arthur Galston is perhaps most fondly remembered and honored for his ultimately successful campaign to end America’s use of the chemical defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam.  The direct result of his activism was President Nixon's order to cease this practice long before the end of the war.  Dr. Galston was awarded an Alumni Achievement Award by the College of LAS in 2004.  Read his obituaries in the New York Times and The Economist, and a brief autobiography here.

Browse our Scrapbook for past Happenings.