Danforth Center Scientist Elected 2012 Fellow

St. Louis, MO, December 01, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Dr. Tom Brutnell director of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The election of AAAS Fellows by their peers has been a tradition for more than 130 years and is an honor bestowed upon distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are recognized for meritorious efforts to advance science or its applications.

Brutnell is being honored for his distinguished contributions to the understanding of C4 photosynthesis, light signaling in the grasses and the development of genomic resources for the community. Brutnell joined the Danforth Center this year from the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell to serve as Director of the Enterprise Institute for Renewable Fuels. A primary objective of Dr. Brutnell's program is to expand the research portfolio to include the use of model plant systems to accelerate gene discovery and the development of second generation lignocellulosic feedstocks.

AAAS will formally announce the 702 members selected as Fellows during the 2013 AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston, Mass and in the News & Notes section of the journal Science on November 30, 2012. Dr. Brutnell and other AAAS Fellows selected this year will be presented with a certificate and rosette pin on Saturday, February 16 at the AAAS Fellows Forum.

Each year the Council elects members whose “efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished.” The AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. The organization was founded in 1848 and the tradition of electing AAAS Fellows began in 1874.

About The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Founded in 1998, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a not-for-profit research institute with a mission to improve the human condition through plant science. Research at the Danforth Center will feed the hungry and improve human health, preserve and renew the environment, and enhance the St. Louis region and Missouri as a world center for plant science. The Center’s work is funded through competitive grants and contract revenue from many sources, including the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Agency for International Development, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center invites you to visit its website, www.danforthcenter.org, featuring interactive information on the Center scientists, news, education outreach and “Roots & Shoots” blog help keep visitors up to date with Center’s current operations and areas of research.

American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science (www.sciencemag.org) as well as Science Translational Medicine (www.sciencetranslationalmedicine.org) and Science Signaling (www.sciencesignaling.org). AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS (www.aaas.org) is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.