Biology professors receive prestigious awards

Two IU biologists were recently awarded high honors by scientific societies.\nDistinguished Professor Emeritus Charles Heiser was named as the 2002 recipient of the Raven Award by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. \n"The Peter Raven Award is given by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists to a plant systematist who has made exceptional efforts at outreach to non-scientists," said Richard Jensen, chair of the ASPT Awards and Honors Committee. "(The award) was initiated as a means for the Society to acknowledge Peter Raven's unflagging efforts to promote the role of plant taxonomists or systematists and make their work accessible to the public."\nHeiser, who discovered an interest in botany when he was in college, said the award honors his attempts to share botany with the general public.\n"I think it's more for my trying to present botany and plants to the average person, to the non-technical botanist by using bare language so they can appreciate and understand plants," Heiser said. "I've written five books intended for the general public and another one is on its way."\nHeiser's most recent book, "Weeds in My Garden: Observations on Some Misunderstood Plants," will be available next spring.\nDistinguished Professor Thomas Kaufman received the Marcus Singer Award for his work in developmental biology. The award, announced at the Midwest Developmental Biology Meeting earlier this month, recognizes researchers who have made lasting contributions to the fields of developmental biology or cellular regeneration.\nKaufman has spent several years studying fruit fly developmental genetics. One of his biggest discoveries was of a cluster of mutations in the fruit fly "Drosophila melanogaster" in 1980. This mutation, called the Antennapedia Complex, causes legs to grow where the antenna should be, and can also cause legs to replace the mouthparts. Kaufman's discovery is considered a step towards understanding of body plan development in animals.\nKaufman, who is currently in Europe, was unavailable for comment about the Marcus Singer Award.\n"It makes me awfully proud of these two individuals and our department," IU Biology Department Chair, Jeffrey Palmer, said. "They have made nothing less than groundbreaking contributions on topics ranging from the domestication of plants to the role of genes in animal development"