Mary Clutter was warmly received and applauded by ASPB members in attendance as she was presented the 2006 ASPB Leadership in Science Public Service Award August 5.

The award presentation to Mary was made by ASPB President Michael Thomashow at the ASPB annual meeting in Boston. The award recognizes Mary’s outstanding contributions to science and humanity throughout her 30-year career at the National Science Foundation. James Siedow of the Committee on Public Affairs opened the program and asked Mike to present the award. Mike offered an enthusiastic tribute to Mary and her many accomplishments in presenting her the award.

Mary shared her insights of many significant developments in science over more than the past 30 years. She noted that the Pound Report in 1972 was a landmark National Academies report that challenged the land grant system to start funding competitive awards for fundamental research on plants and animals. It was never published, she noted.

In 1976, Mary arrived at NSF beginning an illustrious career. She was Associate Program Director for the Developmental Biology Program. That first year at NSF, she coordinated a meeting for long-range plans for support of basic research in plant sciences. Bob Rabson, Eli Romanoff and other key research program officers participated.

Two years later, the Department of Agriculture competitive research grant awards program was initiated. Ann Holiday (Holly) Schauer played a major role in initiating the program. Mary noted sadly that Holly had recently died (July 30, 2006).

The year 1981 brought the launch of the Cold Spring Harbor plant molecular biology course. It was established to attract outstanding scientists to plant molecular biology, including Barbara McClintock, Machi Dilworth and many others.

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory model organism meeting on July 20, 1989 selected Arabidopsis for further intensive study. The next year, the Arabidopsis Genome Project was started. Mary noted that it was not a sequencing project at the time. However, Jim Watson, as director of the NIH Genome Center, encouraged Mary to sequence Arabidopsis.

Senators Christopher (Kit) Bond (R-MO) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) launched the Plant Genome Research Program in Fiscal Year 1998. They had earlier interacted with the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to establish an Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Plant Genomes.

The first complete genome sequence of a plant – Arabidopsis -- was published December 14, 2000 as the result of an international effort. Sequencing of the Arabidopsis genome was followed by the 2010 Project. This current collaborative effort is exploring functional genomics. Rice, maize and other plant sequencing projects were cited by Mary.

Before Mary moved into her predictions for science, she recalled that she had accurately predicted the changes in biological research that computers would bring.

She said the next biological revolution could be an effort to make sense of all the information in the genome. Increased study will be conducted in epigenomics. Mary noted how Rich Jorgensen first discovered the phenomenon of RNA interference and his finding was made in plants. This occurred years before scientists in other areas took interest in this area of study.

Mary called on the science community to overcome 20th century barriers – to break out of the “boxology” syndrome. She called for crossing over disciplinary barriers, enhancement of diversity and increased investment in research.

View her presentation (pdf)

Offering her own “Top Ten” predictions, Mary said that in future years:

10. The brain drain will become the global knowledge flow.

9. The disciplines will merge or coalesce.

8. The federal investment in non-medical biology will grow to equal the medical.

7. Public-private partnerships will increase.

6. The total investment in R&D will quadruple.

5. Students will be trained to be fearless scientists.

4. Diversity issues will no longer be issues.

3. The epigenome will be decoded leading to a deeper understanding of biocomplexity.

2. A new scientific language will be invented and spoken by scientists not yet born across the globe.

1. Kit Bond will live forever.

The prediction Mary didn’t make that everyone in attendance already knew, is that plant scientists and the broader science community will always be grateful to Mary for her own incomparable contributions.