Penn State professor Nina Fedoroff was among one of eight scientists named by President George W. Bush yesterday to receive the 2006 National Medal of Science, the nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in scientific research.
Fedoroff, the Verne M. Willaman Chair in Life Sciences and Evan Pugh Professor at Penn State, will receive her medal at a White House ceremony on July 27.
"It's pretty amazing ... the biggest [honor] I've ever had," Fedoroff said.
A 1966 graduate of Syracuse University, Fedoroff produced one of the first complete gene sequences as a postdoctoral fellow. She turned to plant research in 1978 and pioneered the application of molecular techniques to plants by cloning some of the first plant genes.
Today, her laboratory at Penn State is studying how plants perceive and respond to stress and how the plant adapts to changing environments, she said.
"When the climate changes and you get less rain, plants are under stress," Federoff said. When plants are under stress, they don't produce enough sugar and crops don't grow as well, she added.
After moving to Penn State in 1995, Fedoroff founded and directed a multidisciplinary organization now known as The Huck Institute of the Life Sciences.
The institute provides facilities for graduate students and professors and encourages research among different disciplines of life sciences.
"The Huck Institute is an intercollege organization ... that supports people who like to do research in different disciplines," Fedoroff said.
In 2001, President Bill Clinton appointed Fedoroff to the National Science Board, a 24-person board that oversees the activities of the National Science Foundation. Members are selected on the basis of their eminence in science, engineering, education or research management. They are appointed for a six-year term by the U.S. President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Fedoroff is the third Penn State professor to receive the National Medal of Science since its 1959 inception, according to the award's Web site, www.nsf.gov. Erwin Mueller won in 1976 for engineering, and Calyampudi Rao won it in 2001 for mathematics and computer science.
"Dr. Fedoroff is very deserving of this recognition," Bill Mahon, vice president for university relations, wrote in an e-mail. "Penn State is fortunate to have faculty like her."
