Professor Julia Bailey-Serres elected to American National Academy of Sciences

Julia Bailey-Serres, professor in the group Ecophysiology of Plants (Biology), is elected member of the American National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for her excellence in original scientific research. Membership in the NAS is one of the highest honours given to a scientist or engineer in the United States.

Julia Bailey-Serres is professor of Genetics at the University of California. Since 2008 she is also   attached to Utrecht University, as professor of Molecular Physiology of Rice. Her research group studies the sensing, signalling and acclimation responses to low oxygen stress in plants. Her multidisciplinary approach combines genetic, molecular, biochemical and bio-informatic technologies and has significant implications for agricultural and global food challenges.

Rice

Bailey-Serres is being recognized for her role in the discovery and characterization of a gene that allows rice to survive under water. That gene has subsequently been introduced through breeding by the International Rice Research Institute and others, creating flood-tolerant rice varieties that are grown by more than five million farmers in flood-prone areas of Asia.

Impressed

Susan Wessler, a distinguished professor of Genetics and home secretary of the National Academy of Sciences, is impressed with the impact of Bailey-Serres’ research. “It is very unusual for someone to make a basic science discovery and in such a short period of time see it benefit so many, so quickly”, Wessler said.

Nobel Prizes

Bailey-Serres was elected along with 84 other new members and 21 foreign associates from 14 countries. There are currently 2,291 active NAS members and 465 foreign associates. Among the NAS’s renowned members are Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright, and Alexander Graham Bell. Nearly 200 living NAS members have won Nobel Prizes.