Susanne von Caemmerer is an Australian plant physiologist who is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

and

plant physiologist Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Plant physiologists study fundamental processes of plants, such as photosynthesis, respiration, plant nutrition, plant hormone functions, tropi ...

in the Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

; and the Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis. She has been a leader in developing and refining biochemical models of photosynthesis.

Education

von Caemmerer received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

in 1976 from

, she received her

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in plant physiology in 1981.

Career and Research

With

Graham Farquhar Graham Douglas Farquhar, (born 8 December 1947) is an Australian biophysicist, Distinguished Professor at Australian National University, and leader of the Farquhar Lab. In 2018 Farquhar was named Senior Australian of the Year. Life Farquhar a ...

and Joe Berry, her early work in plant

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

led to the development of a biochemical model of

C3 photosynthesis carbon fixation is the most common of three metabolic pathways for carbon fixation in photosynthesis, the other two being and CAM. This process converts carbon dioxide and ribulose bisphosphate (RuBP, a 5-carbon sugar) into two molecules of ...

. The model that mathematically describes the balance of photosynthetic limitations between light-driven energy supply and carbon diffusion substrate supply has become a cornerstone of research into

photosynthesis Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabo ...

at the leaf-level and

carbon flux The carbon cycle is a part of the biogeochemical cycle where carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of Earth. Other major biogeochemical cycles include the nitrogen cycle and the water cycl ...

es at larger scales. She currently serves on the editorial board of the journal '' Plant, Cell & Environment''.

Honours and awards

She was awarded the Charles F. Kettering Award in recognition of her excellence in the field of

in 2014 by the

American Society of Plant Biologists The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) is a non-profit professional society for research and education in plant science with over 4,000 members world-wide. It was founded in 1924, as the American Society of Plant Physiologists (ASPP). T ...

. She was elected a fellow of the

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

, the German

Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (), in short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on 1 January 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the ''Academi ...

in 2006 and a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 2017. In 2021, she and

John Endler John Arthur Endler (born 1947) is a Canadian ethology, ethologist and evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist noted for his work on the adaptation of vertebrates to their unique perceptual environments, and the ways in which animal sensory ...

were jointly awarded the inaugural Suzanne Cory Medal for Biomedical Sciences.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caemmerer, Susanne von Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Living people Academic staff of the Australian National University 20th-century Australian botanists Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Female fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society 21st-century Australian botanists 20th-century Australian women scientists 20th-century Australian scientists Australian National University alumni