Steven C. Huber - Deputy Chair

Steven C. Huber received a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PhD in the Molecular Biology Program in 1977 from the same university. His doctorate work focused on compartmentalization of photosynthetic metabolism and novel metabolite transport activities in plants with C₄ photosynthesis. He then accepted a position as Plant Physiologist with the US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, at North Carolina State University, where he was also appointed as Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1980 and Professor in 1985. That same year he spent a sabbatical leave (1985-1986) with Professor T. Akazawa and Professor T. Sugiyama at Nagoya University in Japan. He has served as Review Officer (2000-2001) for the Office of Scientific Quality Review, providing oversight of the external peer review of ARS research programmes. In 2003, his laboratory moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he is an ARS Plant Physiologist in the USDA Photosynthesis Research Unit and Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Science. His research focuses on the role of protein phosphorylation in regulation of primary carbon and nitrogen metabolism in plants, and signalling by leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinases (LRR-RLKs) with particular focus on brassinosteroid signalling. He is the 2008 recipient of the Lawrence Bogorad Award for Excellence in Plant Biology Research from the American Society of Plant Biologists.