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Kramer Named Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Cambridge, Mass. - November 28, 2007 - Elena M. Kramer, a plant biologist who has applied rigorous genetic analysis to her studies of the evolution of floral form, has been appointed professor of organismic and evolutionary biology in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2007.
Kramer, 36, was previously John L. Loeb Associate Professor in Harvard's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, where she has taught since 2000.
"Professor Kramer brings to the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology not only scientific leadership, but also consummate mastery as a teacher," says Jeremy Bloxham, dean for the life sciences in FAS. "In the lab, her establishment of the perennial Aquilegia as a major new genetic model of plant development has provided botanical researchers with an invaluable system for studying the rise of new floral morphologies. As a teacher, her students and peers consistently rate her lectures as engaging and masterful and her guidance in the field as skillful and inspiring."
Combining plant biology, evolution, developmental biology, and genetics, Kramer's work has shown that the evolutionary history of the so-called MADS-box family of genes -- which govern flower development, differentiating between petal, sepal, stamen, and carpel -- is far more complex than previously recognized. She has demonstrated how changes in flower form result from changes in MADS-box expression, and that shared patterns of gene expression in the handful of major plant models cannot necessarily be extrapolated more broadly.
As part of a National Science Foundation-funded initiative, Kramer has also helped establish the genus Aquilegia, more commonly known as columbines, as a prime new model of plant development. Her genetic analysis of flower components has yielded a much deeper understanding of how gene duplication can drive evolution of plant morphology, which in turn helps explain the origins and evolutionary diversification of flowering plants.
Kramer, who serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Plant Sciences, holds a B.A. from Brandeis University, awarded in 1993, and a Ph.D. from Yale University, awarded in 1999. Following postdoctoral work at Yale, she joined Harvard as an assistant professor in 2000 and was promoted to associate professor in 2004.
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