Biologist Kathleen Dononue Wins Guggenheim Fellowship

Biology professor Kathleen Donohue is one of 175 scholars, artists and scientists being awarded a 2013 fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Fellowships are awarded on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, the foundation said in an April 11 announcement. In its 89th annual competition for the United States and Canada, Donohue and the other grantees were chosen from a group of almost 3,000 applicants.

Donohue will use the fellowship to support a 9-month research sabbatical at the University of Montpellier and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France, continuing her work on the genetic basis of plant responses to environmental conditions. She'll be combining theory with her previous work on the genetic pathways plants use to coordinate their developmental timing to the seasons.

The project will develop modeling approaches to connect known genetic pathways of developmental timing to predict how entire populations could respond to changes in climate.

"These artists and writers, scholars and scientists, represent the best of the best," said Edward Hirsch, president of the Foundation. "Since 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has always bet everything on the individual, and we’re thrilled to continue the tradition with this wonderfully talented and diverse group. It's an honor to be able to support these individuals to do the work they were meant to do."

Since its establishment in 1925, the Foundation has granted over $306 million in Fellowships to more than 17,500 individuals, among whom are scores of Nobel laureates, poets laureate, winners of Pulitzer Prizes, Fields Medals, and of other important, internationally recognized honors.