Virginia Walbot (born 1946) is an American

agriculturalist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.) is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the Uni ...

and

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

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 ...

in the Department of Biology at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. She investigates

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

development with a focus on factors involved in male sterility.

Life

Walbot first began working with corn when she used to help grow and sell it on her family's farm in Southern California. Later in the 1970s she met

Barbara McClintock Barbara McClintock (June 16, 1902 – September 2, 1992) was an American scientist and cytogenetics, cytogeneticist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. McClintock received her PhD in botany from Cornell University ...

, who was very influential. That is when Walbot began visiting McClintock's lab in Cold Spring Harbor and became devoted to studying maize development and reproduction. In 1967, Walbot received a B.A. degree in biology at

. In 1969–1972, attended Yale to work on embryogenesis, where she earned an M.Phil. and Ph.D. She attended the University of Georgia on a postdoctoral appointment. She became a faculty Member at Washington University in St. Louis. Later Walbot returned to Stanford as a professor in the Department of Biology. Walbot first worked with maize while working with Ed Coe in the University of Missouri. Walbot participates in societies including the American Society for Cell Biology, AAAS, AIBS, Genetics Society, and International Society for Plant Molecular Biology Published two books, ''Developmental Biology'' in 1987 and ''The Maize Handbook'' in 1993.

Honors and awards

*Recognized as a Pioneer Member of 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 ...

. *Corresponding Member, Mexican Academy of Sciences (2004) *Hageman Lectureship, Kansas State University (2001) *Joan V. Wood Lectureship, Indiana University (1999) *Explorer Award, National Geographic Society (1998) *Eppley Award, Eppley Foundation (1993) *Fellow, Guggenheim Foundation (1987) *Belk Award, Miami University of Ohio (1985) *Fellow, American Assn. Advancement of Science (1981) *Postdoctoral Fellowship, NIH (1972–1975) *Predoctoral fellowship, NSF (1969–1972)

References

External links

The Walbot Lab at Stanford University

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Walbot, Virginia Living people American agriculturalists Stanford University faculty American women botanists American botanists Stanford University Department of Biology faculty 1946 births 21st-century American women