NEWS RELEASE
October 16, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Brian Hyps
Phone (301)251-0560 ext. 114
Fax (301) 279-2996
Email bhyps@aspb.org

California State University Professor Brusslan Appointed Chair of American Society of Plant Biologists Women in Plant Biology Committee

ROCKVILLE, MD - October 25, 2006: California State University (CSU) Professor Judy Brusslan has been appointed Chair of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Women in Plant Biology Committee. Dr. Brusslan, a biology professor at CSU, Long Beach, assumed her position October 1, 2006. She is also serving on the ASPB Executive Committee, which is the Society's governing committee.

"It is an honor to serve as the Chair of the Women in Plant Biology Committee; many accomplished women have held this position. I look forward to the career workshops that ASPB facilitates and to finding strategies to support the needs of women scientists," she said.

Over the past decade, Brusslan has been awarded three consecutive research grants from the National Science Foundation worth more than $900,000. Her work developing experiments that can be tailored to simultaneously teach plant physiology to elementary and college students earned her ASPB's Education Booth Award at this year's annual meeting. She has twice served as a panelist for the Society's Career Workshop seminar, including the topic of balancing career and family. She was first appointed to the ASPB Women in Plant Biology Committee in 2004.

"Judy brings a wealth of enthusiasm and experience to her position," said Laura Olsen, immediate past committee chair. "She is committed to quality research and education in plant biology, and has a special interest in K-12 outreach."

ASPB is a non-profit science society of 5,000 members from the U.S. and nearly 60 other nations. The Society publishes two of the most frequently cited plant science journals: The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology. ASPB, founded in 1924, is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.

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