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

Dartmouth College Professor McClung Voted President-Elect of American Society of Plant Biologists

ROCKVILLE, MD - October 10, 2006: Dartmouth College Professor C. Robertson McClung has been voted President-Elect by his peers to lead the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB). McClung's one-year term began October 1, 2006. ASPB is a non-profit science society of 5,000 members from the U.S. and nearly 60 other nations.

"It is a great honor to serve as President-Elect of ASPB. I am both excited and sobered by the current challenges to ASPB in advancing the science of plant biology. The study of plants is vital for the long-term health of the planet, but plant science competes for attention and for funding dollars with other compelling interests, including health care and lunar and interplanetary exploration. ASPB must continue to enhance the scientific literacy of the lay public and to make the case for the importance of plant science. Of course, we also need to recruit and train the next generation of plant scientists."

McClung has been the Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Sciences at Dartmouth College since 2004 and has served on the North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee since 2003. He is a member of the ASPB Publications Committee and worked with the Society's Committee on the Status of Women in Plant Physiology.

ASPB publishes two of the most frequently cited plant science journals: The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology. The Society, founded in 1924, is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.

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