Diter vonWettstein
Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and the School of Molecular Biosciences

Diter vonWettstein's work in plant genetics has been internationally recognized for breakthroughs in genetically modifying barley for brewing processes and disease resistance.

A plant molecular biologist and geneticist, Diter vonWettstein's
contributions are:

• The molecular-genetic analysis of chlorophyll synthesis and the discovery that plants unlike humans synthesize the universal precursor of porphyrins "5-aminolevulinic acid" from glutamic acid.
• Identification of the three proteins that are required for
  insertion of the magnesium into the chlorophyll molecule were another landmark of these studies.
• Clarification of the function of the special structure "called the synaptonemal complex" in chromosome pairing and chiasma formation during meiosis was recognized by his election to the National Academy of Sciences.

He participated in the sequencing of the yeast genome and bred new strains of brewers yeast and malting barleys by metabolic
engineering. This was possible by clarifying the concerned metabolic pathways and using relevant mutations to change them. The elite barley cultivar Radiant was released by WSU. It lacks the flower color-related compound proanthocyanidin in the grain and promises to substantially reduce beer production costs by eliminating the need for a clarification process. VonWettstein's newest work uses cloned genes inserted by genetic transformation into the barley genome. It aims at cost effective production of pharmaceuticals, fibers, livestock feed, and plastics by using solar energy instead of fossil fuel.

Biography
Diter vonWettstein holds the Robert Nilan Distinguished
Professorship in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and the School of Molecular Biosciences. He earned Ph.D.s at the University of Tübingen, Germany, in biology/ biochemistry in 1953 and the University of Stockholm, Sweden, in genetics the same year. He earned a D.Sc. at the University of Stockholm, Sweden, in 1957 in genetics. Dr. vonWettstein has co-authored three publications in high impact journals (Proceeding of National Academy of Sciences, Plant Physiology, Biochemistry). He will present in July 2003 the EMBO plenary lecture at the XIIth International Congress on Genes, Gene Families, and Isozymes to be held at the Free University in Berlin, Germany.

Awards and Honors

• Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences USA
• Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences
• Member of the Royal Physiographic Society at Lund
• Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization
• Member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher, Leopoldina
• Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
• Member of the Academy of Technical Sciences, Copenhagen
• Member of Academia Europaea
• Associe du Académie Royale des Sciences de Belgique
• Corresp. Member, Austrian Academy of Sciences
• Corresp. Member, Nordrhein-Westf.Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Gregor Mendel Medal, Leopoldina
• Mothes Memorial Gold Medal, Leopoldina
• Dr. agro.h.c. Agricultural University, Copenhagen