Joanne Chory

Born: 1955

Country of Birth: USA

Nationality: USA

Ethnicity: White

Oberlin College AB Biology; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign PhD Microbiology; Postdoc work at Harvard University Medical School

""I've come tp appreciate plants as the amazing machines they are-they literally suck CO2 out of the air. They've been doing it for 500 million years & they're really good at it." (Ted.com) "We're going to make plants better. . . .And we;re going to end up saving the world." (Washington Post)"

— Joanne Chory

Field of Study: Plant Biology; Genetics

Institution/Corporation: Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Degrees & Memberships: Honorary Degree: Oberlin College (2019); Member: Foreign Member Royal Society (2011), American Philosophical Society (2015), Foreign Associate Academie des Sciences France (2009), German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2008), Associate Member EMBO (2006), Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005), US National Academy of Sciences (1999), American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1998), Investigator Howard Hughes Medical Institute (1997), Fellow National Academy of Inventors ( 2018), European Molecular Biology Organization Associate Member (2006)

Awards: 2020 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize; 2019 Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research; 2018 Gruber Prize in Genetics; 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences; 2004 Kumho Award in Plant Molecular Biology; 2003 Scientific American 50: Research Leader in Agriculture; 2000 L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science; 1995 Charles Albert Schull Award, awarded by American Society of Plant Biologists 1994 NAS Award for Initiatives in Research;2012 Genetics Society of America Medal; 2024 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science; 2018 University of Illinois Alumni Achievement Award; 2013 Danforth Award for Excellence in Plant Science

Achievements: focused on research to optimize plant growth & increase plant ability to transform carbon dioxide into oxygen using a small flowering mustard plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, as a model for plant growth