Susan Randi Wessler (born 1953, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

), ForMemRS, is an American plant

molecular biologist Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

and geneticist. She is Distinguished Professor of Genetics at the University of California, Riverside (UCR).

Education

Wessler graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1970."Susan R. Wessler '70 Elected Home Secretary of Prestigious national Academy of Science," ''The Bronx High School of Science Alumni News'', Summer 2011, pp. 1, 5. She received her bachelor's degree in 1974 in

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

from the

State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

and her Ph.D. in

Biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in 1980.

Career and research

She was a postdoctoral research

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in the Department of

Embryology Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, '' -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization, and development of embryos and ...

from 1980-1982. She joined the faculty at University of Georgia (UGA) in 1983 as an assistant professor of

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

becoming a full professor in 1992. She was named Distinguished Research Professor in 1994 and Regents Professor in 2005. In 2006, Professor Wessler was named a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

(HHMI) Professor. She is also a ''professor at large'' at the

Keck Graduate Institute Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) is a private graduate school in Claremont, California. Founded by Henry Riggs in 1997, it is the seventh and newest member of the Claremont Colleges. History Henry Riggs, then president of Harvey Mudd College, ...

at the Claremont Colleges in

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles. It is in the Pomona Valley, at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 census it had a popul ...

. Her research focuses on identifying plant transposable elements and determining how they contribute to

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

and

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

. Her work has deciphered how transposable elements generate genetic diversity and attain high copy numbers without killing their host. Her laboratory demonstrated that elements could function as

intron An intron is any nucleotide sequence within a gene that is not expressed or operative in the final RNA product. The word ''intron'' is derived from the term ''intragenic region'', i.e. a region inside a gene."The notion of the cistron .e., gene. ...

s and that retrotransposons are the major cause of spontaneous insertion

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, mi ...

s in

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

. In the

genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...

era her laboratory pioneered the computational analysis of transposable elements, culminating in the discovery of miniature inverted repeat transposable elements (MITEs), the element most frequently associated with plant genes. As a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Professor, Wessler adapted her research program for the classroom by developing the Dynamic Genome Program where incoming freshmen experience the excitement of scientific discovery.

Awards and honors

*Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2017 *Elected member,

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

(2013) *Elected member,

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

(1998) *Councilor, National Academy of Sciences (2004) and Home Secretary (2011) *Elected fellow,

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(2006) *Elected fellow,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

(2007) * American Society of Plant Biologists' Stephen Hales prize (2011) *

FASEB Excellence in Science Award The Excellence in Science Award was established by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) in 1989 to recognize outstanding achievement by women in biological science. All women who are members of one or more of the so ...

(2012) * McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics and Genome Studies (2015) * HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology Life Sciences Prize (2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wessler, Susan Randi 1953 births Living people 21st-century American biologists 21st-century American botanists American geneticists Female Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign Members of the Royal Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Howard Hughes Medical Investigators University of Georgia faculty The Bronx High School of Science alumni Cornell University alumni American women biologists Stony Brook University alumni Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Members of the American Philosophical Society Scientists from New York City American women academics 21st-century American women scientists Biologists from New York (state)