​Installation of Professor Richard D. Vierstra as the George and Charmaine Mallinckrodt Professor

​A new professorship for a new faculty member

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and Dean Barbara A. Schaal look forward to your attendance at the installation of Professor Richard David Vierstra, Ph.D, of the Department of Biology as the George and Charmaine Mallinckdrodt Professor.

Professor Vierstra's research interests include the pathways by which plant and animal cells selectively degrade proteins, post-translational modifications involved in plant stress defense, and the mechanisms by which plants perceive light in their environment. He received his doctorate from Michigan State University and was most recently the Stanly J. Peloquin Professor of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Vierstra and his team, while at Wisconsin, won an Alumni Research Foundation award for work with light sensing phytochromes, which are the main photoswitches that enable plants to germinate, become photosynthetic, respond to shade, and flower.