School of Humanities and Sciences


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  • Virginia Walbot

    Virginia Walbot

    Professor of Biology, Emerita

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur current focus is on maize anther development to understand how cell fate is specified. We discovered that hypoxia triggers specification of the archesporial (pre-meiotic) cells, and that these cells secrete a small protein MAC1 that patterns the adjacent soma to differentiate as endothecial and secondary parietal cell types. We also discovered a novel class of small RNA: 21-nt and 24-nt phasiRNAs that are exceptionally abundant in anthers and exhibit strict spatiotemporal dynamics.

  • Dr. Zhiyong Wang

    Dr. Zhiyong Wang

    Professor (By Courtesy), Biology

    BioDr. Wang is the acting director of the Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution for Science, and a professor by courtesy of the Department of Biology, Stanford University. He is currently an associate editor of Molecular Cellular Proteomics, and editorial board member of Molecular Plant. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and recipient of the Humboldt Research Prize.
    Dr. Wang obtained his Ph.D. in 1998 from UCLA, where he cloned the plant circadian clock gene CCA1. He did his postdoctoral research at the Salk Institute, where he studied the brassinosteroid signaling mechanism mediated by the BRI1 receptor kinase. Since joining Carnegie in 2001, his research has illustrated the receptor kinase signaling pathway that links the BRI1 receptor kinase to the BZR1 transcription factor and brassinosteroid-responsive genes in the Arabidopsis genome. He further demonstrated how the steroid signaling pathway integrates at the molecular level with other hormonal pathways, light signaling pathways, nutrient-sensing pathways, immunity pathways, and the circadian clock, to coordinately regulate plant growth and development. His lab uses combinations of genomic and proteomic approaches to understand how cellular signals are transduced and integrated through posttranslational modifications (e.g. phosphorylation and O-Glycosylation) and protein-protein interactions. His studies are elucidating the molecular mechanisms that control plant growth and mediate responses to environmental changes.

  • Ward Watt

    Ward Watt

    Professor of Biology, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsEvolutionary adaptive mechanisms, molecules to ecosystems

  • Norman Wessells

    Norman Wessells

    Professor of Biological Sciences and Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAnnual survey of rainbow and brown trout in northern lakes on the North Island of New Zealand. !995-2018, et seq.