Professor Julia Bailey-Serres is a Distinguished Professor of Genetics and Director of the Center for Plant Cell Biology at the University of California, Riverside. She is known for her research on plant adaptive responses to environmental stresses. Her group dissected the mechanisms of submergence tolerance provided by rice gene SUBMERGENCE 1A gene that now stabilizes grain yields in flood-prone paddies of Asia. She has guided discoveries into the mechanisms whereby

plants sense, signal and respond to oxygen deficiency and energy stress. Her pioneering studies in RNA biology uncovered the importance of mRNA sequestration and translational control in response to and recovery from hypoxia and other stimuli. Through the inventive capture of mRNAs associated with ribosomes combined with chromatin profiling, her group has uncovered cell-specific metabolic and developmental plasticity to water extremes, nutrient deficiencies, and beneficial microbes in rice. Current research seeks to define and manipulate gene circuitry and mRNA translation that underlies adaptive plasticity to enhance multi-stress resilience, soil health, and global food security. Bailey-Serres is a fellow of the US National Academy of Sciences.