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Membership Corner

Name: Subbaiah Chalivendra
Place of work or school: Monsanto Company
Research area: Plant biotechnology
Member since: 1993

1. Has being a member of ASPB helped you in your career? If so, how?
Surely, in several ways. ASPB membership, through the newsletter and annual meetings, has been a window to get to know other members more closely than just through their work. I also enjoy the immediate access to the most current literature (including papers in press) via the two top-notch plant biology journals that ASPB publishes.

2. Why has being a member of ASPB been important?
Membership gives you a sense of belonging, in addition to all the reasons mentioned above.

3. Was someone instrumental in getting you to join ASPB?
Yes, my postdoc supervisor, Marty Sachs, who is currently at the University of Illinois. I became interested in joining the Society when I started my graduate research. However, I had to wait until I started my postdoc work to afford the dues.

4. What would you tell nonmembers to encourage them to join?
If you are a plant biologist, I do not think that it would be wise to miss the advantages of being a member of the ASPB community.

5. Have you gotten a job using ASPB job postings or through networking at the annual meeting?
Yes, I saw my current job posted on the ASPB web site.

6. Have you hired anyone as a result of a job posting at the meeting or on our online Job Bank?
No, I have not personally hired anyone, but our team did hire people that responded to our job posting on the online Job Bank.

7. Do you still read print journals?
No.

8. What do you think is the next “big thing” in plant biology?
I would not venture a guess on what will be the most fashionable. However, I would like to say what, in my opinion, is important: We still need to understand a lot about the fundamental life processes such as DNA replication, transcription, and translation in plants. We now have many powerful molecular and cell biology tools to do this, beside tons of genomic information. In the same vein, we should also put to use these new resources to revisit important issues in the plant community biology. For example, we know quite a bit about the molecular ecology of light signaling (such as shade avoidance response and the like) but not as much about plant–water relationships.

9. What person, living or dead, do you most admire?
A number of them. However, I would put my science club teacher in India, Mr. C. P. Rao, on the top. He dedicated his life to inspiring many students like me.

10. What are you reading these days?
I read a few of the trade journals besides the technical ones.

11. What are your hobbies?
I like reading and watching movies.

12. What is your most treasured possession?
My kids (hope they are not reading this).

13. What do you still have left to learn?
A lot, both in my professional and personal lives.