APPENDIX C
Speaker Biographies
Michael T. Clegg (Forum Chair) is acting dean of the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of California, Riverside. Dr. Clegg is the leading student of the evolution of complex genetic systems. He is recognized internationally for his contributions to the genetic and ecological bases for adaptive evolutionary changes within populations and at higher taxonomic levels. His current research interests include population genetics of plants, plant molecular evolution, statistical estimation of genetic parameters, plant phylogeny, plant genetic transmission and molecular genetics, and genetic conservation in agriculture. Dr. Clegg is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and chair of the Board on Biology. He has served on several National Research Council studies and NAS commissions. Dr. Clegg received his Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California, Davis.
John R. Bedbrook is executive vice-president and director of science, DNA Plant Technology Corporation (Empressas La Moderna), Oakland, California. In 1980 he cofounded Advanced Genetic Sciences, Inc., which later merged with DNA Plant Technology Corporation. Dr. Bedbrook has published over 100 articles on molecular genetics. He was the first person to isolate a plant gene. He has served on the editorial boards of several international scientific journals and initiated the first teaching course in plant molecular biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He has studied and worked in the field of plant molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School; Harvard University; the Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge, England; and CSIRO in Australia. Dr. Bedbrook received his Ph.D. in molecular biology and virology in New Zealand.
Alan B. Bennett is professor and associate dean at the College of Agricul-
ture and Environmental Sciences, Department of Vegetable Crops, University of California, Davis. Dr. Bennett's major research interests at the University of California include molecular biology of tomato fruit development, molecular basis of membrane transport, and protein maturation and targeting to the cell wall and vacuole. Dr. Bennett currently serves on the editorial board of Plant Physiology and has served as a panel member for the U.S. Department of Agriculture 's competitive research grants and National Science Foundation programs. He also serves as the University of California representative on the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council. Dr. Bennett holds one patent (U.S. Patent #5,168,064) for Endo-1,4-b-glucanase gene and its use in plants and has applied for another (U.S. Patent Application #770,970) for tomato acid invertase gene. He received his Ph.D. in plant physiology from Cornell University.
June Blalock is a licensing specialist with the Office of Technology Transfer, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland. Ms. Blalock joined the Office of Technology Transfer in 1993 as coordinator of the Technology Licensing Program. Previously, she was associate director of the Triangle Universities Licensing Consortium, where she had primary responsibility for licensing university-owned intellectual property in the biotechnology and biomedical fields from Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has held sales and marketing positions at International Biotechnologies, Inc., and has taught microbiology at the University of Maryland and Goucher College. Ms. Blalock is a member of the Licensing Executives Society, the Association of University Technology Managers, the Association of Federal Technology Transfer Executives, and the American Society for Microbiology.
Wendy A. Choi is a patent attorney with Union Camp Corporation, in Princeton, New Jersey. Before law school, Ms. Choi was a research scientist for the Rohm and Haas Company in Philadelphia. She graduated cum laude from Temple University School of Law and summa cum laude from Chestnut Hill College with a B.S. in chemistry. Ms. Choi is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Robert R. Fincher is director of university-government research collaborations and germplasm licensing at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Johnstown, Iowa. Previously, Dr. Fincher served as director of research for a group that works to improve agronomic traits with new technologies. The group's areas of expertise include breeding, genetics, statistics, molecular biology, and plant physiology. Dr. Fincher began his work at Pioneer Hi-Bred International in 1982 as a corn breeder and in 1985 began to work with biotechnology projects, including field evaluation of cell-culture-derived plants. He received his Ph.D. in agronomy (plant breeding) from the University of Missouri, Columbia.
B. Ellen Friedman directs a curriculum development project at the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), Colorado Springs, Colorado. She also designs and writes materials for a new college-level curriculum in biology being
developed at BSCS. In academic settings, Dr. Friedman taught at the college and postgraduate levels and conducted research in molecular genetics, biochemistry, and genetic engineering during a 20-year period. Most recently, she was an assistant professor at New Mexico State University and was with the Plant Genetic Engineering Laboratory. She also served as a graduate faculty instructor for the molecular life sciences doctoral program at New Mexico State. Dr. Friedman received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Rice University.
Robert M. Goodman is a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is also a member of the interdepartmental program in plant genetics and plant breeding, the Institute for Environmental Studies, the graduate program in cellular and molecular biology, and the Biotechnology Training Program. At the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Goodman's laboratory works on the molecular regulation of plant defense genes and the role of plant genotype in associations with noninvasive beneficial microorganisms. He is well known for his groundbreaking research as a professor at the University of Illinois, where he was the first to describe the molecular biology of a group of plant viruses, now called geminiviruses. Dr. Goodman has served on the National Research Council's Board on Agriculture and numerous NRC study committees. Dr. Goodman received his Ph.D. from Cornell University.
Laura R. Meagher is associate dean of research at Cook College and associate director of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Rutgers University. She is also cofounder and director of Phytotech, Inc., of Monmouth, New Jersey. At Rutgers she has responsibility for leadership in catalysis and implementation of novel multidisciplinary multisector initiatives, such as the Biodiversity Center, and is involved in research and outreach in systematics, ecology, natural product chemistry, conservation and restoration, and an Ecosystem Policy Research Center, a soft-walled center that brings together teams of diverse social and natural scientists to address environmental, agricultural, marine, and science and technology issues. Previously, Dr. Meagher served as industry/government liaison for the Agricultural Biotechnology Center. In the early 1980s she was a cofounder and vice-president of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Dr. Meagher received her Ph.D. in zoology from Duke University.
Ilya Raskin is a professor at the Center for Agricultural Molecular Biology, Rutgers University, and founder, director, and chairman of the Science Advisory Board, Phytotech, Inc., of Monmouth, New Jersey. Previously, Dr. Raskin held positions at Dupont and Shell Agricultural Chemical Company. He has served on numerous review panels for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, BARD, Human Frontier Science Program, and AFRC (U.K.). Dr. Raskin has eight U.S. and foreign patent applications pending. He has two patents for (1) removal of metals from aqueous streams using plant roots (rhizofiltration) and (2) use of crop and crop-related species of the Brassiceae tribe of Brassicaceae family for in
situ remediation of metal-contaminated soils (phytoextraction). In 1996 Rutgers University awarded him a Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research. Dr. Raskin received his Ph.D. in plant physiology from Michigan State University.
Suzanne A. Scotchmer is professor of economics and public policy, University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Scotchmer has eclectic academic interests that range from legal issues, such as intellectual property protection and rules of evidence in criminal trials, to evolutionary game theory. She has written on the process of jurisdiction formation, tax enforcement, and antitrust issues. She currently serves on the editorial boards of the American Economics Review, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Public Economics, and Regional Science and Urban Economics. She has been a visiting professor of economics at the new School of Economics in Moscow and at the Université de Paris I (Sorbonne), as well as Distinguished Olin Visiting Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Toronto. Previously, Dr. Scotchmer was associate professor of economics at Harvard University, Hoover national fellow at Stanford University, and Olin fellow at Yale Law School. Dr. Scotchmer received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Ronald Sederoff is Edwin F. Conger Professor of Forestry, Department of Forestry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh. Dr. Sederoff's research group leads the field in molecular genetics of forest trees, providing the base for genetic engineering of forest trees. His research group was the first to transfer a gene into a conifer. Dr. Sederoff and colleagues developed methods for genomic mapping of individual trees and applied those methods to complex trait analysis, particularly growth and disease resistance. Dr. Sederoff also is director of the North Carolina State University Forest Biotechnology Industrial Research Consortium. Dr. Sederoff is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and serves on the Board on Biology. He received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of California in Los Angeles.
Steven H. Strauss is a professor of forest science, Oregon State University, Corvallis. Dr. Strauss's research topics include genetic engineering, genome mapping, and population genetics of forest trees. He also directs the Tree Genetic Engineering Research Cooperative at Oregon State University, a consortium composed of 11 paper companies, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Electric Power Research Institute. He has held visiting scientist positions in France and Australia and currently serves as chairman of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations Working Party on Molecular Genetics of Forest Trees. Dr. Strauss has obtained grants totaling over $3 million from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, forest industries, and other sources. He has authored over 40 journal articles. He received his Ph.D. in forestry genetics and resource management from the University of California, Berkeley.
Patricia B. Swan is vice-provost for research and advanced studies and dean of the graduate school at Iowa State University in Ames. Previously, she was a professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition and associate dean of the graduate school at the University of Minnesota, where she had been a member of the faculty since 1964. Professor Swan's current work emphasizes the history of research on nutritional biochemistry in the United States. She has served on numerous professional societies and committees as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture 's Agricultural Advisory Committee on the National Research Initiative and as a member of the National Research Council's Board on Agriculture. She presently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Alternative Agricultural Research and Commercialization Center, as a member of the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council, and as president of the newly formed Iowa Research Council. Dr. Swan received her Ph.D. in biochemistry and nutrition from the University of Wisconsin.
Robert R. Swank, Jr., is director of research at the Ecosystems Research Division, National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in Athens, Georgia. Previously, Dr. Swank was director of research at the Athens Environmental Research Laboratory of the EPA. Dr. Swank is presently a member of the Science Advisory Committee of the South/ Southwest Hazardous Substance Research Center. He has published several articles on industrial pollution control technology and exposure assessment methods. Dr. Swank received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Gerald A. Tuskan is a research staff scientist with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Environmental Sciences Division, U.S. Department of Energy, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. His research responsibilities are in the areas of molecular/genetic diversity studies of newly regenerated aspen seedlings in Yellowstone National Park; genetic transformation experiments involving plant hormone genes; and genetic characterization of stress resistance in woody plants, particularly temperature adjustment, drought, and UV-B stresses. Previously, Dr. Tuskan was an assistant professor at North Dakota State University. He has authored over 48 refereed publications and 32 papers. Dr. Tuskan received his Ph.D. in forest genetics from Texas A&M University.
