Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 20, 2006|Volume 35, Number 7

Mary Helen Goldsmith

Event honors recently retired plant biologist

Noted plant biologists will honor the career of Yale scientist Mary Helen Goldsmith, professor emeritus of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, at a symposium being held on Friday, Oct. 27, at Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History, 170 Whitney Ave.

The event will begin at 8:30 a.m. It is free and open to the public.

Goldsmith, who recently retired, has been a member of the Yale faculty since 1963. Her principal teaching and research has been in plant cell biology and physiology, with a focus on the regulation of growth by environmental signals and hormones, the polar transport of auxin, and the role of proton pumps and ion channels in acquisition of nutrients.

The featured speakers at the symposium will include Goldsmith's former students, research associates and colleagues. The symposium will begin with opening remarks by Timothy Nelson, professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale. Other featured speakers will include Gus Speth and Gordon Geballe, dean and associate dean respectively of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES); Robert Cleland of the University of Washington; Maarten Chrispeels of the University of California-San Diego; Daniel Cosgrove of Pennsylvania State University; and Edgar Spalding of the University of Wisconsin.

Goldsmith was director of Yale's Marsh Botanical Gardens for 16 years and served for seven years as master of Silliman College where she nurtured the Student Environmental Coalition and provided them with their first space. She has since served as a consultant and guide for this group. Goldsmith also played a key role in revitalizing the "second major" in environmental studies that, under her leadership, matured into a full-fledged major with faculty contributions from F&ES and Yale College.

She has served as president of the American Society of Plant Physiologists and was a Guggenheim Fellow. Goldsmith was the first Brenda Ryman Visiting Fellow at Girton College, Cambridge University.

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