Media Contact: Kim McDonald (858) 534-7572  
Comment: Julian I. Schroeder (858) 534-7759

A biologist at the University of California, San Diego who has uncovered the molecular mechanisms that allow plants to remove toxic metals from contaminated soil and resist drought has won this year’s $250,000 Blasker Award for Environmental Science and Engineering.

Julian I. Schroeder, a professor of biology in UCSD’s Division of Biology, will receive the prestigious award from The San Diego Foundation at a ceremony on June 13. He was cited by the committee of internationally renowned scientists who selected him for the award for his "significant contribution toward addressing a significant environmental issue." The committee, chaired by Rita Colwell, director of the National Science Foundation, added that Schroeder’s research "establishes a basic scientific understanding of plant genetics for the remediation of soil contamination." It noted that his discovery of mechanisms for engineering drought-tolerant plants for such remediation has direct applications for the San Diego region.

"Dr. Schroeder’s pioneering work on the use of genetically engineered plants for the removal of heavy metals from contaminated soils will facilitate the renewal of land to make possible its sustainable, beneficial use," the committee said.

The Blasker Award for Environmental Science and Engineering recognizes those individuals or groups who have enhanced the quality of life of San Diego residents and the world’s population by developing creative and innovative solutions to an environmental problem selected by the Blasker Award’s committee of experts. The award is made possible by the Blasker-Rose-Miah Endowment Fund of the San Diego Foundation.

A faculty member at UCSD since 1990, Schroeder identified important plant genes responsible for the transport and detoxification of such toxic metals as cadmium, arsenic and lead. These metals contaminate the soils and waters of many industrial sites and are implicated in learning disabilities, dementia and increased rates of cancers. While their removal is a costly and often inefficient process, research suggests that plants can be bioengineered to absorb heavy metals through their root systems, providing a cost effective and environmentally friendly method of remediating heavy metal-laden soils and waters.

Over the past 15 years, Schroeder’s laboratory has also identified many of the mechanisms that control the opening and closing of stomatal pores in leaves, where plants lose more than 95 percent of their water through transpiration. His laboratory was also the first to identify genetic mutations in plants that enhance the closing of stomatal pores in response to drought, increasing the drought resistance of plants. These advances will help plant scientists adapt plants to arid regions, assisting urban-water conservation efforts, reforestation, agriculture and bioremediation in Southern California and other regions.

Schroeder, originally from New Jersey, received his doctorate from the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and the University of Gottingen in Germany. He was a postdoctoral fellow of the von Humboldt Foundation at the UCLA School of Medicine from 1988 to 1990 and was a recipient of a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1991 and the Charles Albert Shull Award from the American Society of Plant Physiologists in 1997. He currently holds a Novartis Endowed Chair in Plant Sciences at UCSD.