Susan Wessler
Distinguished Professor of Genetics, University of California, Riverside

Wessler is distinguished professor of genetics at Department of Botany & Plant Sciences in University of California, Riverside. A native of New York City, Wessler graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and received her bachelor's degree in biology, with honors, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1974. She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Cornell University in 1980 and was a postdoctoral fellow of the American Cancer Society at the Carnegie Institution from 1980-1982.

She began her career at the University of Georgia in 1983 as an assistant professor of botany, rising through the ranks to full professor of botany and genetics in 1992. In 1994 she was awarded the title of Distinguished Research Professor which she held until 2004 when she was named a Regents Professor. In 2008 she was named the first University of Georgia Foundation Chair in the Biological Sciences.

She is co-author of The Mutants of Maize (Cold Spring Harbor Press) and of over 120 research articles. She is one of the principle authors of Introduction to Genetic Analysis, a leading textbook used in introductory genetics courses in colleges and universities throughout the world. In addition, she is an Associate Editor of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is on the Editorial Board of Current Opinions in Plant Biology.

In 1998 Wessler was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences and was elected in 2004 to the Council of the National Academy. In 2011, she was elected as NAS home secretary.

In 2006 Wessler was selected as a Howard Hughes Research Institute Professor. She is a fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the recipient of the Creative Research Medal (1991) and the Lamar Dodd Creative Research Award (1997) from the University of Georgia. In addition she was the first recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award (2007) from the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA).

Her scientific interest focuses on the subject of plant transposable elements and the evolution of plant genomes. She is the mother of two daughters, Becca 15 and Nicole 22.