Williams Chair in Biology: Dr. Poethig

Dr. R. Scott Poethig has been named the inaugural holder of the Paul Williams Family Term Chair in Biology, SAS Dean Samuel H. Preston has announced.

Dr. Poethig received his B.A. in 1974 from the College of Wooster and his M. Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale in 1981. He has been a member of the faculty since 1983 and currently chairs the biology graduate group. Before that, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Missouri and Stanford.

Dr. Poethig's research focuses on genetic regulation of plant morphogenesis, the formation and differentiation of tissues and organs in plants. He teaches courses on plant development, genetic systems, and teaching biology. He has published articles in a number of scholarly journals and sits on the editorial boards of Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology, Developmental Biology, The Plant Journal and Evolution and Development. He was recently elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest federation of scientists and publisher of Science. He has also received an NSF Predoctoral Fellowship, the Botanical Society of America's Pelton Award for contributions in experimental plant morphology, Yale's Nicholas Prize in Experimental Biology, and Penn's Biology Department Teaching Award.

This Williams Chair was created in 2002 by University Trustee and SAS Overseer Paul C. Williams, W '67. Mr. Williams, the vice president and manager of Nuveen Investments, has been a generous supporter of many University priorities, including several term chairs and scholarships in SAS, the biology department, and the Quad renewal project.