Press Release – ASPB Names 2019 Recipient of Leadership in Science Policy Public Service Award

Honor to be presented at Plant Biology 2019 in San Jose, California

ROCKVILLE, MD – The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) is pleased to announce that Pamela Ronald is the recipient of its 2019 Leadership in Science Policy Public Service Award. The ASPB Science Policy Committee awards the Leadership in Science Public Service Award annually to recognize individuals who have advanced the mission of ASPB and its members through significant contributions to plant science and public policy leadership. Awardees generally have made contributions to the broader society that are relevant to the work of plant biologists.

Dr. Ronald is the Distinguished Professor in the department of plant pathology and the Genome Center at the University of California, Davis and is the founding director of the UC Davis Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy. Dr. Ronald is recognized for her tremendous contributions to the national and international dialogue on agricultural production and plant science.

In 2015, she coauthored Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food. She was also featured in the acclaimed 2017 documentary “Food Evolution,” which chronicled the GMO controversy. “She has done a great public service by doing high quality research with great practical implications and also by communicating to the general public the importance of plant biotechnology for sustainable agriculture,” said 2008 awardee Luis Herrera-Estrella regarding Dr. Ronald.

Other winners have included Machi Dilworth (2018), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (2015), William Danforth II (2009), Norman Borlaug (2002), and Sen. Kit Bond (1998). The ASPB Leadership in Science Public Service Award recipient is invited to address the Society during the annual meeting held in the year of their award. Dr. Ronald will address the Society at Plant Biology 2019 in San Jose, California.

ASPB is a professional scientific society, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, devoted to the advancement of the plant sciences worldwide. With a membership of approximately 4,500 plant scientists from across the United States and more than 50 other nations, the Society publishes two of the most  widely cited plant science journals: The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology.

For more information about ASPB, please visit http://www.aspb.org/. Also follow ASPB on Facebook at facebook.com/myASPB and on Twitter @ASPB.

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