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ST. LOUIS, MO, March 11, 2021 - Two Danforth Center Principal Investigators were recently recognized with early career awards for outstanding achievement and leadership.
Andrea Eveland, Ph.D., associate member, received the Marcus Rhoades Early Career Award at the 63rd Maize Genetics Conference (MGC) for her research that mixes genomics, developmental biology, and advanced bioinformatics. The MGC Marcus Rhoades Early Career award recognizes an individual who has made significant research contributions through genetic studies of maize or related species, and has been in a permanent position for eight or fewer years.
Eveland has been an active member of the MGC community for 18 years, the last six of which have been at the Danforth Center. Her research is focused on genetic control of plant architecture and regulation of abiotic stress response. Eveland leads a $3.4M National Science Foundation-funded project that leverages developmental biology, genomics, and quantitative genetics to dissect the molecular networks underlying tassel branching and leaf angle in maize, two important traits underlying yield. She also leads a $2.5M Department of Energy-funded project that integrates high-throughput phenotyping with genetics and genomics to identify novel loci for drought resilience in sorghum, a small grain cereal crop that is closely related to maize. Eveland has also been a major driver in establishing Setaria viridis as a model for developmental genetics, using it to make several key discoveries in plant architecture that can be translated back to maize and sorghum.