Mary-Dell Chilton
Template:Short description Template:Infobox scientist Mary-Dell Chilton (born February 2, 1939, in Indianapolis, Indiana) is one of the founders of modern plant biotechnology.
Early life and education
Chilton attended private school for her early education.<ref name=Stanley>Template:Cite book</ref> She earned both a B.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.<ref name=Locke>Template:Cite news</ref> She later completed postdoctoral work at the University of Washington at Seattle<ref name=Stanley />
Career and research
Chilton taught and performed research at Washington University in St. Louis.<ref name=Stanley /> While on faculty there in the late 1970s and early 1980s, she led a collaborative research study that produced the first transgenic plants.
Chilton was the first (1977) to demonstrate the presence of a fragment of Agrobacterium Ti plasmid DNA in the nuclear DNA of crown gall tissue. Her research on Agrobacterium also showed that the genes responsible for causing disease could be removed from the bacterium without adversely affecting its ability to insert its own DNA into plant cells and modify the plant's genome.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Chilton described what she had done as disarming the bacterial plasmid responsible for the DNA transfer. She and her collaborators produced the first genetically modified plants using Agrobacterium carrying the disarmed Ti plasmid (1983). She has been called the "queen of Agrobacterium."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Chilton is author of more than 100 scientific publications. She is a Distinguished Science Fellow at Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc. She began her corporate career in 1983 with CIBA-Geigy Corporation (a legacy company of Syngenta).
Awards and honors
For her work with Agrobacterium tumefaciens, she has been recognized with an honorary doctorate from the University of Louvaine, the John Scott Medal from the City of Philadelphia, membership in the United States National Academy of Sciences, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Sciences from the Franklin Institute.
She was honored by the Crop Science Society of America in 2011 with the organization's Presidential Award.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In honor of her many achievements, in 2002 Syngenta announced creation of the Mary-Dell Chilton Center – a new administrative and conference center which was added to the company's facility in Research Triangle Park, in North Carolina.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In June 2013, she was named a laureate of the prestigious 2013 World Food Prize.<ref>Template:In lang Catherine Morand, "Le prix mondial de l'alimentation à Monsanto et Syngenta ? Une farce", www.letemps.ch, 16 October 2013 (page visited on 16 October 2013).</ref><ref>Syngenta's Mary-Dell Chilton named 2013 World Food Prize laureate</ref><ref name=Pollack>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2015, Chilton was elected to the National Inventors Hall of Fame.<ref name=NIHoF>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2020, she was one of eight women featured in "The Only One in the Room" display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Chilton has been recognized as a Pioneer Member of the American Society of Plant Biologists.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The National Medal of Technology and Innovation was awarded to Chilton by President Biden in 2023.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Further reading
References
External links
- 1939 births
- Living people
- Scientists from Indianapolis
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- 20th-century American women scientists
- 20th-century American botanists
- 21st-century American biologists
- Winners of the World Food Prize
- 21st-century American women scientists
- Washington University in St. Louis faculty
- University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences alumni
- Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates