AAAS Selects Danforth Center Principal Investigator to Serve as Chair-Elect for the Biological Sciences

ST. LOUIS, MO, UNITED STATES - Jan 19, 2016 - The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center announced Elizabeth (Toby) Kellogg , Ph.D., member and principal investigator was selected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science  (AAAS) to serve as chair-elect for the Biological Sciences Section beginning in late February this year. The section provides expertise and input for association-wide projects and arranges symposia for the annual meeting.  As chair-elect, Kellogg will succeed Danforth Scientific Advisory Board Member Dr. Pamela Ronald, who will step in to the office of Chair.  

“It is an honor and a privilege to be elected to represent this group and to participate in scientific leadership at the national and international level,” said Kellogg. “The AAAS is the leading organization that speaks for all science and engineering, as their mission states 'throughout the world for the benefit of all people'. Within the AAAS, the Division of Biological Sciences represents a notably broad and influential group of scientists.”

Kellogg joined the Danforth Center in 2014. She studies cereal crops and the evolution, domestication and genetic architecture of their wild relatives in the grass family. Her research has led to the identification of genes that contribute to the diversity of the primary cereal crops used for food. Kellogg’s work on development and genomics of cereal grasses contributes directly to the Center’s focus on translating basic research into results that provide food and fuel for the U.S. and the world.

From 1998-2013 Kellogg was the E. Desmond Lee and Family Professor of Botanical Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL). Prior to her tenure at UMSL, she was an Associate Professor at Harvard University, where she received her Ph.D. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Academia Nacional de Ciencias, Argentina, and the Academy of Science of St. Louis.

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION OF AAAS
Current chair: Steve Henikoff, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Chair-elect: Pamela Ronald, University of California, Davis
Retiring chair: Dennis Thiele, Duke University

Chair-Elect: Elizabeth (Toby) Kellogg, Donald Danforth Plant Center
Member-at-Large of the Section Committee: Marisa S. Bartolomei, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Electorate Nominating Committee: Marnie E. Halpern, Carnegie Institution for Science; Mary Ann Moran, University of Georgia
Council Delegate (1-year term): James R. Broach, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine; Jessica Gurevitch, Stony Brook University
Council Delegate (2-year term): Jennifer Jane Loros, Dartmouth College; Ann K. Sakai, University of California, Irvine
Council Delegate (3-year term): Carol Dieckmann, University of Arizona; Susan M. Rosenberg, Baylor College of Medicine; Susan R. Ross, University of Pennsylvania

About The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Founded in 1998, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a not-for-profit research institute with a mission to improve the human condition through plant science. Research, education and outreach aim to have impact at the nexus of food security and the environment, and position the St. Louis region as a world center for plant science. The Center’s work is funded through competitive grants from many sources, including the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

To keep up to date with Danforth Center’s current operations and areas of research, please visit, www.danforthcenter.org, featuring information on Center scientists, news, and the “Roots & Shoots” blog. Follow us on Twitter at @DanforthCenter. 

About AAAS
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science (www.sciencemag.org) as well as Science Translational Medicine (www.sciencetranslationalmedicine.org), Science Signaling (www.sciencesignaling.org), and a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances (www.scienceadvances.org). AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes nearly 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world. The non-profit AAAS (www.aaas.org) is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement, and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS. See www.aaas.org.