Interactions

Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, public domain, via Wikime​dia Commons​​​

Two IS-MPMI members, Dr. Greg Martin and Dr. Blake Meyers, have earned membership in the prestigious U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS; http://www.nasonline.org). The NAS is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Currently, it has about 2,400 active members and 500 foreign associates. The NAS recognizes achievement in science by election to membership and, with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine, provides science, engineering, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.

Dr. Greg Martin

Dr. Martin is the Boyce Schulze Downey Professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) and a professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) at Cornell University. At BTI, researchers in Dr. Martin's lab study the molecular basis of bacterial pathogenesis and the plant immune system. The long-term goal of his research is to use knowledge gained about the molecular basis of plant–pathogen interactions to develop plants with enhanced natural resistance to diseases. An InterView with Dr. Martin conducted by Haesong Kim from Pohang University of Science and Technology will be published in the September issue of Interactions.

Dr. Blake Meyers

Dr. Meyers is a principal investigator and member at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Meyers' group leads development and application of high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies to make fundamental discoveries about the biology of plants, including mechanisms of disease resistance, function and regulation of genomes, epigenetic mechanisms, and regulatory RNA. You can read the InterView with Dr. Meyers conducted by Dr. Ajayi Olaoluwa Oluwafunto in this issue of Interactions​.