Joseph R. Ecker
Professor, Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory
Salk Institute for Biological Sciences
La Jolla, CA
USA

Joseph R. Ecker, a professor in the Plant Biology Laboratory, is one of the nation's leading authorities on the molecular biology and genetics of plants. Dr. Ecker was a principal investigator in the multinational project that sequenced the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana, a modest weed that has become a model organism for the study of plant genetics. This wild mustard variety is the first plant to have its genome sequenced, an achievement expected to have widespread implications for agriculture and perhaps human medicine as well.

Dr. Ecker is also widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on how the gaseous hormone ethylene regulates a variety of basic plant processes. For agriculture, ethylene gas is a vital chemical messenger important for such processes as fruit ripening and how plants respond to pathogenic organisms.

Dr. Ecker received a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and completed his postdoctoral training at Stanford University School of Medicine. He has received many awards and honours, notably: in 2007 – the National Academy of Sciences, John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science, in 2006 election to the National Academy of Sciences, in 2005 – the American Society for Plant Biology's Martin Gibbs Medal, in 2004 – Scientific American 50 Research Leader of the Year, and the International Plant Growth Substances Association Distinguished Research Award, and in 2001 the Kumho Science International Award in Plant Molecular Biology and election as President of the International Society for Plant Molecular Biology.

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