Nina Fedoroff

Nina Vsevolod Fedoroff (born 1942) is an American professor known for her research in life sciences and biotechnology, especially transposable elements or jumping genes^[1] and plant stress response.^[2][3] In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded her the National Medal of Science in the field of Biological Sciences, the highest award for lifetime achievement in scientific research in the United States.^[4] Fedoroff was elected President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a position she held from 2011 to 2012.^[5] She is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,^[2] the European Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Microbiology.^[6]

Early days

Fedoroff, whose father was an immigrant to the USA and her mother a first generation immigrant, was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Her first language was Russian.^[7] When she was nine years old her family moved to Fayetteville, in Central New York.

She then relocated to Philadelphia where she planned to study music but returned to study science at Syracuse University not far from Fayetteville.^[7] She graduated summa cum laude in 1966 from Syracuse University with a dual major in biology and chemistry.^[8] She received her PhD in molecular biology 1972 from The Rockefeller University.^[9]

Research

After graduating from Rockefeller University she joined the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles, where she did research into nuclear RNA.^[10] She then worked on developmental biology at the Department of Embryology at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, where she pioneered DNA sequencing and worked out the nucleotide sequence of the first complete gene.^[10] In 1978, she became a staff member at the Carnegie Institute and joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University Biology Department, where she did groundbreaking work on the molecular characterization of maize transposable elements or jumping genes (for which Barbara McClintock had been awarded a Nobel Prize in 1983).^[10]

Academic positions and honors

Fedoroff arrived at Pennsylvania State University in 1995 as the Verne M. Willaman professor of Life Sciences and founded and directed the organization now known as the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.^[4] In 2002, she was appointed an Evan Pugh professor, the university's highest academic honor.^[9][11] In 2013 Federoff was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST),^[12] and a member of the external faculty of the Santa Fe Institute.^[6][10]

Fedoroff has been honored with the Howard Taylor Ricketts Award from University of Chicago in 1990,^[4] and in 1992 she received the New York Academy of Sciences Outstanding Contemporary Women Scientist Award.^[4] In 1997, Fedoroff received the John P. McGovern Science and Society Medal from Sigma Xi.^[9] She was awarded in 2003 Syracuse University's George Arents Pioneer medal.^[9]

President Bill Clinton appointed Fedoroff to the National Science Board, which oversees the National Science Foundation, in 2001.^[4] The foundation administers the science awards, established by the United States Congress in 1959. Fedoroff was Science and Technology Adviser to U.S. Secretaries of State, Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton^[13] and to the administrator Rajiv Shah for the United States Agency for International Development from 2007 to 2010.^[14]

Private life

Fedoroff has three children and seven grandchildren. She enjoys music, theatre and singing.^[3][7]

Bibliography

• Nina Fedoroff, The Dynamic Genome: Barbara McClintock's Ideas in the Century of Genetics, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Pr, 1992, ISBN 9780879694227
• Nina Fedoroff, Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist's View of Genetically Modified Foods, National Academy Press, 2004, ISBN 0-309-09205-1
• Nina Fedoroff, Plant Transposons and Genome Dynamics in Evolution, Barnes & Noble, Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated, 2013, ISBN 9781118500101

See also

• Barbara McClintock

References

External links

• The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
• Nina V. Fedoroff, Evan Pugh Professor of Biology, Willaman Professor of Life Science, Penn State University
• Faces of Penn State