Joe Key Symposium

UGA’s Plant Center celebrates its 30th Anniversary with a two-day symposium, May 11-12. The symposium celebrates the legacy of Joe L. Key, Professor Emeritus of Plant Biology, and former UGA vice president for research.

The Symposium brings world renowned plant scientists and former students, postdocs and colleagues of Dr. Joe Key back to UGA to celebrate 30 years of Plant Center research excellence.  The Symposium is dedicated in honor of Dr. Key for his pioneering research in plant molecular genetics, and for his leadership in fostering an innovative and dynamic plant sciences community at UGA.

The invited speakers, including influential plant biologists with UGA roots, are at the forefront of cutting-edge plant research, ranging from small RNA biology to hormone signaling to stress tolerance to subcellular trafficking to comparative genomics to crop domestication.  These topics are of national and international significance as they are key to harnessing the power of plant genetics and molecular breeding to meet the ever-growing demands of food, feed, fiber and fuel.

The UGA community is invited to attend the University Signature Lecture featuring Sir David Baulcombe, Royal Society Research Professor and Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge. His lecture is titled When genomes meet – RNA, epigenetics and phenotypes of hybrid plants. The lecture will be held 8:30-9:30 a.m. at the Georgia Museum of Art.