Danforth Plant Science Center Announces New President

Online, November 5, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Dr. William H. Danforth, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, today announced that Dr. James C. Carrington, will become the next President of the Danforth Plant Science Center. Carrington is the Director of the Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing (CGRB), the Stewart Professor for Gene Research, and Distinguished Professor of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.

Carrington, age 50, takes office on May 1, 2011.

The Danforth Center is the world's largest independent research institute dedicated to plant science with more than 200 employees, 80 PhDs and a $20 million annual budget.

"We at the Center are very fortunate that Jim Carrington, an outstanding scientist and visionary scientific leader, will be our next president," Danforth said. "Jim is the ideal person to build on our successes and lead us to ever greater accomplishment and service."

Carrington's selection comes following an extensive national search led by Dr. P. Roy Vagelos, retired chairman and CEO, Merck & CO. Carrington will succeed interim President Phil Needleman, Ph.D., who has led the Center since October 2009 when the founding President Roger N. Beachy, Ph.D was appointed the first Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Carrington is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and internationally recognized for his research on gene silencing, the functions of small RNA, and virus-host interactions. He is a world leader in the study of "small RNA," which was cited by the journal Science in 2002 as the scientific "Breakthrough of the Year." This work has played a major role in unraveling some of the mechanisms by which plants and other organisms use small snippets of RNA to control growth, development and defense against viruses. He regularly gives talks and presentations about his research to audiences around the globe.

"This is both an exciting and critical time in plant science, and the Center is recognized globally for its highly relevant mission and excellent scientific programs. I am honored to have been selected for this position and am committed to sharing my knowledge, experiences and ideas to shape the Center as it enters a second decade of growth," Carrington said. "My wife, Teri, and I are excited to join the St. Louis community. The wonderful people we've met already made our decision to move here much easier."

As Director of the CGRB, Carrington is responsible for coordinating and developing campus-wide efforts in computational and genomic biology research and education. He has been at OSU since 2001 and was recently named a Distinguished Professor, the institution's highest academic honor.
Prior to joining the faculty of OSU he served as a professor at the Institute of Biological Chemistry at Washington State University, and spent nine years as a professor in the Department of Biology, Texas A&M University.

Carrington received his Bachelor of Science in plant science from the University of California, Riverside in 1982 and his Ph.D in plant pathology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986. He did his postdoctoral work at Oregon State University.
Carrington has received many awards for his work, including the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, the Ruth Allen Award from the American Society for Phytopathology, the Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the Stewart Professor for Gene Research. He has also been elected as Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, the American Phytopathological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.