Faculty statements top of page- for 5-year terms, alphabetical by first name

1. Hong Ma, Penn State University, USA

2. Juan Dong, Texas A&M University, USA

3. Katie Greenham, University of Minnesota, USA

4. Kyaw (Joe) Aung, Iowa State University, USA

5. Marisa Otegui, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

6. Tom DeFalco, Western University, Canada

7. Venu Reddy Gonehal, University of California, Riverside, USA

Early Career Scholar statements below faculty- for 1-year terms, alphabetical by first name

1. Arihel Hernández, Instituto de Biotecnología UNAM, Mexico

2. Beatriz Esperanza Ruiz Cortés, Cinvestav - Irapuato, Mexico

3. Brian Aguilera, Pennsylvania State University, USA

4. Fernando Solano García, Cinvestav - UGA, Mexico

5. Francisco Javier Aguirre Falcón, Cinvestav-UGA, Mexico

   1. Hong Ma, Pennsylvania State University, USA.

   (1) Motivation to serve and priorities if elected: First, I am very honored to be nominated as a candidate for an elected member of the NAASC. In addition to being an active researcher in Arabidopsis biology and a plant biology educator, I have had a long-term interest in services and contribution to the Arabidopsis community and the broader plant biology community. I strongly believe in working together with colleagues to promote Arabidopsis research and to enhance interaction and cooperation among colleagues. I have contributed in multiple ways and numerous times to our community and profession including as a reviewer for multiple journals (e.g., The Plant Cell, Plant Physiology, New Phytologist, Plant Molecular Biology, and more), as an Associate Editor for Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology and a guest editor for other journals and serving on the editorial boards of several journals.  I have also served on grant panels and as an outside reviewer for US grant agencies. Therefore, I welcome another chance to serve our community as a member of NAASC and to contribute to important goals we share.
   Arabidopsis research has made numerous discoveries through genetic, molecular biological, genomics and other omics, and bioinformatic and AI-assisted investigations. Arabidopsis research continues to provide state of art advances and numerous findings on gene functions and molecular/cellular processes made in Arabidopsis research have been shown to be highly conserved in many other plants; these have demonstrated the many benefits of Arabidopsis as a versatile model system. Arabidopsis has also been the testing ground for many new techniques and the starting point of new research areas. The great knowledge base and existing resources continue to place Arabidopsis at the forefront of plant biology basic research.  It is extremely important to continue to promote Arabidopsis research and to facilitate scientific communication through the ICAR and other forums. Another priority is to engage with government agencies, industry representatives, and the general public to highlight the benefits of Arabidopsis research, by mobilizing our community to present the impact of Arabidopsis basic research on plant breeding and enhancing agriculture, and to impress on stakeholders that Arabidopsis research is simply much more feasible and likely to yield new insights, which in turn can then be tested in other plants to promote agriculture-related efforts. We also need to educate students that Arabidopsis is THE place where we can address questions of “why” and “how”, in addition to leaning about “what”, “when” and “where”, to prepare younger generations as new members of our community. Furthermore, recognition on the outstanding achievements of Arabidopsis biologists with awards also provide opportunities to highlight contributions the awardees have made to plant biology and the broader scientific community.

   (2) Relevant experiences: I have (co-)organized or (co)chaired sessions at national or international conferences, such as Cold Spring Harbor Meeting on Plant Signal Transduction, International Botanical Congress, annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB), Congress of the International Society of Plant Molecular Biology, the annual meeting of the American Society of Botany, and Congress of the International Society of Plant Tissue Culture and Biology. In addition, I was the lead instructor for the Cold Spring Harbor Plant Molecular Biology course; part of the responsibilities was to invite dozens of speakers and lectures over three years. I have also chaired the organizing committee for Penn State Plant Biology Symposium. In recent years, I have co-organized or organized sessions for the annual conference of the American Society of Botany, including speaker invitations and proposal preparation/submission. Furthermore, I have just served for three years as a leader of the ASPB (President-Elect, President, and the Immediate Past President), with a wide range of duties including serving on the Program Committee, which is responsible for organizing the annual ASPB conference. These works require considerable time commitment and discussion with colleagues. I believe I work well as a contributor and consensus builder.

   (3) Brief scientific background: I am a biology professor at the Pennsylvania State University and hold the Huck Chair in Plant Reproductive Development and Evolution. I have been a member of the Arabidopsis community for almost 40 years, ever since when I was a graduate student, when I attended the first Arabidopsis conference held in the US, 1987 at Michigan State. I have been an active researcher of Arabidopsis development and molecular mechanism since my post-doctoral time at Caltech. I have attended many Arabidopsis conferences, both in the US and in other countries. These meetings have been important occasions not only for learning new ideas and new results, but also times to re-connect with old acquaintances and make new friends.
   My own lab has studied some of the most important regulatory genes of flower and fruit development, discovered and characterized over a dozen genes with crucial functions for meiosis and anther/pollen development, and genes that play important roles for support flower and fruit development under limited water. Our molecular evolutionary analyses of regulatory gene families across angiosperms with founding members discovered in Arabidopsis support their functional conservation. My research career has been a wonderful demonstration of the great power of cooperation and collaboration, the wonderful experience of training young people and seeing their success in science and other careers, and of the joy of sharing ideas and the benefit of helping each other.   I hope that serving on the NAASC will give me more chances to work with colleagues to support Arabidopsis research and our community.

   2. Juan Dong, Texas A&M University, USA.

   I would be honored to serve the Arabidopsis community as a member of the North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee (NAASC). My motivation to serve stems from deep gratitude for the Arabidopsis community, which has shaped my scientific career and provided the foundation for discoveries in plant cell polarity, asymmetric cell division, and developmental patterning. I view NAASC as a vital platform for advancing fundamental plant biology, fostering the next generation of researchers, and strengthening our community’s voice in broader scientific and societal contexts.

   (1) My priorities, if elected as a NAASC member, will center on three areas: (a) ICAR and Community-Building: I am committed to helping shape ICAR as an inclusive and inspiring venue that highlights cutting-edge science while amplifying diverse voices. My past service on the ASPB Program Committee and experience organizing workshops, symposia, and international meetings position me well to contribute to ICAR programming that balances fundamental discoveries with interdisciplinary and translational directions. (b) Fundamental Plant Biology: My research investigates how protein interaction networks and kinase signaling regulate cell polarity and asymmetric cell division in Arabidopsis stomatal lineage cells. This work underscores the power of Arabidopsis to reveal fundamental mechanisms of cellular organization and development. As a NAASC member, I will advocate for sustained investment in Arabidopsis as a premier model system for mechanistic discoveries with broad relevance across plant biology and, in many cases, other eukaryotes. (c) Mentorship and an Inclusive Community: I am committed to helping researchers from all backgrounds feel welcome, supported, and able to contribute to the Arabidopsis community. Through mentoring students and postdocs at Rutgers University and Texas A&M University, I have worked to create supportive and equitable research and learning environments. As a NAASC member, I will support efforts to strengthen mentoring networks, broaden participation, and expand professional development opportunities, particularly for early-career researchers and those who face barriers to participation.

   (2) Scientific Background: I am a professor of plant molecular biology at Texas A&M University. My lab uses Arabidopsis stomatal lineage cells as a model to investigate how cell polarity governs asymmetric cell fate and tissue patterning. We employ molecular genetics, advanced confocal microscopy, and proteomic platforms to identify key polarity regulators and define how signaling molecules orchestrate cellular events in development and environmental responses. Over the past decade, my group has contributed new molecular players to polarity complexes and provided conceptual advances linking cell polarity to cell fate, developmental plasticity, and environmental responsiveness in plant growth.

   (3) Community Engagement: Beyond my research, I have contributed extensively to community service, including serving on the NIH, NSF, and USDA panels, the ASPB Program Committee, and the Plant Physiology editorial board. I believe Arabidopsis remains indispensable as a model because it enables rapid, rigorous, and cost-effective discovery that informs broader plant biology, agriculture, and biotechnology. Serving on NAASC would allow me to give back to this remarkable community by supporting its scientific mission, mentoring networks, and international leadership.

   3. Kathleen Greenham, University of Minnesota, USA.

   (1) Motivation to serve & priorities if elected: I am excited by the opportunity to serve on NAASC because I believe the Arabidopsis community remains uniquely positioned to drive fundamental discoveries in plant biology while also providing the tools, resources, and training that enable advances across diverse plant systems. If elected, one of my priorities would be to strengthen connections between Arabidopsis research and emerging areas of plant science, particularly single-cell and spatial biology, computational biology, and translation of discoveries into crop and other non-model species. I am especially interested in creating opportunities for students and early-career scientists to develop skills at the interface of computation and experimental plant biology. I would also advocate for undergraduate research and training opportunities that broaden entry into the plant sciences and for outreach that communicates the value of fundamental plant research to students, schools, and the broader community.

   (2) Relevant expertise, leadership & experience: My laboratory trains undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers across experimental and computational plant biology, and I am particularly passionate about giving undergraduate researchers opportunities to participate meaningfully in discovery-based research. In my teaching, I work to expose students to the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of modern plant biology, including opportunities to integrate computation, data analysis, plant physiology, and scientific writing. My lab also participates in local school and community outreach aimed at increasing awareness of plant science and creating pathways for students to see themselves as scientists. Beyond my institution, I serve on the ASPB Midwest Section committee and will lead organization of the 2028 ASPB Midwest meeting at the University of Minnesota. These experiences have strengthened my interest in building scientific communities that are welcoming, collaborative, and intellectually broad. On NAASC, I would be particularly enthusiastic about contributing to ICAR programming, training and professional-development activities, and initiatives that connect researchers across career stages, institutions, and scientific backgrounds.

   (3) Brief scientific background: My research focuses on understanding how time of day shapes plant responses to their environment. I began my graduate training at UC San Diego studying auxin signaling in Arabidopsis, then moved into Brassica rapa during my postdoctoral work at Dartmouth College to investigate circadian transcriptional regulation of abiotic stress responses. My lab now works across both systems, using Arabidopsis to understand how circadian regulation differs among cell and tissue types and B. rapa and other species to explore how these insights translate across plants. I see this ability to combine deep mechanistic discovery with comparative and translational research as one of the great strengths of the Arabidopsis community.

   4. Kyaw (Joe) Aung, Iowa State University, USA.

   (1) Motivation to Serve & Priorities if Elected: I am putting myself forward for election to NAASC because I have built my entire scientific career around Arabidopsis, remaining committed even when I was advised that an Arabidopsis-focused research program might not offer a viable long-term career path. I believe deeply in the power of Arabidopsis to drive fundamental discoveries, and I now hope to contribute to this community in a new way through service. If elected, I would focus on three priorities. First, I would advocate for sustained support for fundamental Arabidopsis research and community resources, emphasizing how discoveries in Arabidopsis continue to provide a foundation for advances across plant biology. Second, I would promote collaborations, workshops, and training that connect Arabidopsis researchers with experts in AI and emerging technologies and make these approaches accessible to the broader community. Finally, I would support students and early-career scientists by maintaining and expanding funding opportunities for them to attend ICAR and other community meetings, present their research, and build professional networks.

   (2) Relevant Expertise, Leadership & Experience: I would bring to NAASC experience in research, mentoring, education, scientific review, outreach, and community service. Equally important, I see NAASC service as an opportunity to learn from current members, listen to the needs of the Arabidopsis community, and work collaboratively to address them. At Iowa State University, I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in molecular and plant cell biology and mentor undergraduate researchers, graduate students, and postdoctoral scientists. Helping young scientists develop scientific independence has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my career. Service on NSF and USDA grant review panels has given me a broad perspective on the plant science funding landscape and reinforced the importance of effectively communicating the value of fundamental research. Since 2021, I have participated in Iowa State University’s SCIENCE BOUND program, introducing middle- and high-school students to plant cell biology through hands-on experiments and microscopy. I also served on the local organizing committee for the 2024 International Plasmodesmata Meeting. I believe this is the right time in my career to contribute more directly to the Arabidopsis community.

   (3) Brief Scientific Background: Arabidopsis has been at the center of my research for more than two decades, allowing me to pursue questions ranging from nutrient homeostasis and organelle biology to plant immunity and intercellular communication. My early work helped establish the critical role of microRNAs in phosphate homeostasis. During my training at Michigan State University, my interests expanded to plant cell biology and plant-microbe interactions, ultimately leading me to discover that bacterial pathogens manipulate plasmodesmata to promote infection. Since establishing my laboratory at Iowa State University in 2018, I have continued to use Arabidopsis to investigate the function and regulation of plasmodesmata. Our research combines genetics, live-cell imaging, biochemistry, proteomics, structural approaches, and microbial genetics. More recently, we have been investigating how plasmodesmata function as signaling hubs that coordinate reactive oxygen species homeostasis and intercellular signaling, work currently supported by an NSF CAREER award. I remain excited by the extraordinary genetic resources available in Arabidopsis and the opportunities to combine them with emerging technologies to uncover fundamental mechanisms relevant across plant biology.

   5. Marisa Otegui, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

   (1) Motivation to Serve & Priorities if Elected: Arabidopsis has been the foundation of much of my scientific career, and I have benefited enormously from the openness, generosity, and collaborative spirit of this community. Serving on NAASC would be an opportunity to give back to a research community that has shaped my career and provided opportunities for me and my students.
   One of my strongest interests is supporting the next generation of plant scientists. For more than a decade, I have helped organize the Plant Cell Dynamics meeting, a conference designed to provide trainees with a supportive environment in which they are the primary speakers and scientific leaders. We have also worked continuously to raise funds that make participation possible for trainees who might otherwise be unable to attend.  If elected to NAASC, I would work to strengthen opportunities for trainees and early-career scientists, support initiatives that broaden and sustain participation, and advocate for the critical role of fundamental plant biology research. I would also work to ensure that the Arabidopsis community remains welcoming, collaborative, and scientifically vibrant.

   (2) Relevant Expertise, Leadership & Experience: Throughout my career, I have tried to contribute to the plant biology community not only through research, but also through mentoring, conference organization, and professional service. I have co-organized numerous national and international meetings, including the Plant Cell Dynamics conference series, the Panamerican Plant Membrane Biology Workshop, two Gordon conferences, and scientific sessions at ICAR and ASPB meetings. Mentoring has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my career. I have trained undergraduate, high school, and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and visiting scholars from a wide range of backgrounds and career stages. I have also been actively involved in initiatives that support career development in plant science, including serving as Chair of ASPB's Women in Plant Biology Committee. In addition, I have experience with community leadership through service on editorial boards, professional societies, federal agency panels, and scientific steering committees, including The Plant Cell, the Plant Cell Atlas Consortium, ASPB, and the International Plant Molecular Biology Board.

   (3) Brief Scientific Background: I am a Professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Biology (former Department of Botany) and a member of the Center for Quantitative Cell Imaging. My research focuses on fundamental questions in plant cell biology, particularly the mechanisms that govern membrane trafficking, endosomal sorting, autophagy, and organelle dynamics under stress. I use Arabidopsis together with advanced imaging approaches to understand how plant cells organize and recycle their internal components during development and environmental responses.
   My laboratory has contributed to identifying novel functions of ESCRT proteins, understanding endosomal trafficking pathways, and uncovering mechanisms of organelle turnover and autophagy in plants. More broadly, I am interested in how basic cellular mechanisms shape plant growth, development, and stress responses.
   I have been fortunate to build a career in a community that values collaboration and innovation, and I would be honored to help represent and serve that community through NAASC.

   6. Tom DeFalco, Western University, Canada.

   (1) Motivation to Serve & Priorities if Elected: Arabidopsis has been an essential part of my research career, and I am excited about the opportunity to serve the community through NAASC. There is still so much to learn about how plants work, and Arabidopsis remains one of the most powerful systems for dissecting fundamental biological processes. As funding increasingly emphasizes direct applications to crops, I believe we need to continue making a strong case for fundamental research in Arabidopsis. Important discoveries do not need to be made directly in crops to be relevant to agriculture; a deep understanding of fundamental mechanisms provides the foundation for translating knowledge across plant species. If elected, I would make advocating for Arabidopsis research and the resources that support it a central priority. I would also work to increase the visibility of the excellent fundamental research being done by our community and communicate its importance to the broader plant science community and funding agencies. Finally, I would support efforts to strengthen the Arabidopsis community, particularly by creating opportunities for students and early-career researchers to participate, build professional networks, and pursue careers in plant science.

   (2) Relevant Expertise, Leadership & Experience: I have been actively involved in the plant science community through scientific service, mentoring, scientific communication, and participation in meetings, seminars, and symposia. I particularly enjoy bringing researchers together, facilitating scientific exchange, and creating opportunities for students and early-career scientists to present their work and develop professional networks. Mentoring is an important part of my career, and I am committed to helping trainees develop as independent scientists and effective communicators. I have also contributed to scientific communication and editorial activities, including serving as an editor for The Plant Cell. I would bring this experience to NAASC, with a particular interest in supporting early-career researchers and strengthening the Arabidopsis community.

   (3) Brief Scientific Background: My career began in calcium signaling during my MSc and PhD in Canada, followed by postdoctoral research in the UK and Switzerland, where I shifted my focus to receptor kinases and plant immunity with Cyril Zipfel. Throughout my career, I have been (and remain) a model-system biologist who uses Arabidopsis to address fundamental questions in plant signaling. A major focus of my current research is understanding how cytosolic kinases connect transmembrane receptors to downstream cellular responses through protein phosphorylation. The genetic, molecular, genomic, and proteomic tools and resources available in Arabidopsis are essential to this mechanistic work and enable questions that would be extremely difficult to address in other systems.

   7. Venu Reddy Gonehal, University of California, Riverside, USA.

   (1) Motivation to Serve & Priorities if Elected: As a graduate student in India, I studied Drosophila chemosensory development, which stoked my passion for the power of genetics to analyze complex developmental processes.  Realizing that developmental complexity is best understood by unraveling underlying dynamics through modern live imaging and mathematical/quantitative analysis drove me to study Arabidopsis shoot meristem development. My 27-year journey studying Arabidopsis developmental genetics has taken me through various phases, from genome sequencing and functional gene analysis through T-DNA knockouts and NSF 2010 projects to cell-type-specific and single-cell gene expression analysis. Throughout these phases, the North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee (NAASC) has played a significant role. With the advent of new technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), I expect revolutionary breakthroughs, at both scale and speed, in our understanding of complex gene, cellular, and physiological networks.  In training the research community, especially the graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early career scientists in the development and application of AI in research and teaching, NAASC could play a significant role by developing a repository of available resources and by organizing workshops aimed at the development and benchmarking of models explaining plant biology at different scales. If elected, I will use my experience and network with mathematical modelers, computer scientists, biologists, and funding agencies to develop these initiatives.  

   (2) Scientific background: I am a Professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences at UCR. I have a broad background in developmental biology with specific training in live imaging and cell type-specific genomic analysis in Arabidopsis shoot apical meristems (SAMs). Since my postdoctoral work, I have focused on the dynamics underlying SAM regulation. I developed live imaging methods to track SAM development and FACS-mediated cell sorting techniques to isolate scarce cell types and build high-resolution gene expression maps of the SAM stem cell niche and the gene networks regulated by stem cell-promoting transcription factors. I collaborate with applied mathematicians, computational modelers, and experts in genome informatics to use data sets from live imaging and cell type-specific transcriptomics to develop multicellular and multiscale computational models of stem cell maintenance.

   (3) Additional Expertise, Leadership, & Experience: Co-organized meetings and workshops on shoot meristem development, modeling, and image processing at conferences including International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (2019), Society of Mathematical Biology Annual Meeting (2021), Interdisciplinary Workshop on Multi-scale Modeling of Complex Systems in Developmental and Plant Biology, UCR (2016), and workshop on bioimaging, UCR (2019). I serve on the editorial boards of journals: Physiologia Plantarum, Frontiers in Plant Science, and Scientific Reports. Served as guest editor for the journal PLOS Computational Biology. Developed a mentoring program for high school students in the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) and Alvarado School District. Trained high school students on hands-on research activities and prepared them for science fair competitions. In addition to training graduate students and postdocs, I have trained more than 70 undergraduate students; some have co-authored research papers, and many have successfully transitioned into advanced academic or biomedical programs or into industry.