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Thursday, March 4, 2004
WRITERS: Phil Williams, 706/542-8501, phil@franklin.uga.edu
Heather McDonald, National Academies Office of News and Public
Information, 202/334-2138, news@nas.edu
CONTACT: Susan Wessler, 706/542-1870, sue@plantbio.uga.edu
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ELECTS UGA FACULTY MEMBER SUSAN
WESSLER AS COUNCILOR
WASHINGTON – Dr. Susan Wessler, Distinguished Research Professor
of plant sciences at the University of Georgia, has been elected a
councilor of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.
Wessler has for several years been a member of the Academy, which
represents the summit of career achievements for scientists and engineers
in the U. S., and only a small fraction of working scientists are
elected to the group. Although anyone can suggest a name for membership,
formal proposals for nomination must come from members of the Academy.
The Council of the Academy is governed by five officers and 12 councilors,
elected from among the membership. This council, which meets six times
a year, is responsible to the membership for the activities undertaken
by the organization, and for the corporate management of the National
Academies.
Wessler is part of a small group of scientists at UGA who are members
of the NAS. She is one of five new councilors named by the NAS. Her
three-year term begins July 1.
A native of New York City, Wessler received her bachelor’s
degree in biology, with honors, from the State University of New York
at Stony Brook in 1974 and her doctoral degree in biochemistry from
Cornell University in 1980. After serving a postdoctoral fellowship
in the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D. C. (sponsored by the
American Cancer Society and the Carnegie Foundation), she began her
career at the University of Georgia in 1983 as an assistant professor
of botany (now plant sciences), rising through the ranks to full professor
of botany in 1992. She became a professor of botany and genetics in
the fall of 1993 and a research professor in 1994. In addition, she
was director of the Center for Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology
from 1991-1996.
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