Julian I. Schroeder
University of California, San Diego
|
Primary Section: 25, Plant Biology Secondary Section: 62, Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2015)
|
Biosketch
Julian Schroeder grew up in New Jersey and moved to Germany with his family, when he was 11 years old. He completed undergraduate studies in physics at the University of Göttingen Germany, which included one year as exchange student in Grenoble France. He then received his M.S. (Diplom) and PhD working with Erwin Neher at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and the University of Göttingen in Germany. He was a postdoctoral fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at UCLA with Susumu Hagiwara. He is Novartis Distinguished Professor in Plant Sciences at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and is Co-Director of the Center for Food and Fuel for the 21st Century at UCSD. Julian Schroeder pioneered the identification and characterization of ion channels in higher plants and identified their functions and regulation mechanisms, in particular in stomatal guard cell signal transduction and abiotic stress resistance. He has identified mechanisms and pathways through which plants can reduce water loss during drought and protect themselves from salt stress. Julian Schroeder has received several awards, including from the National Science Foundation, American Society of Plant Biologists, the DFG and the San Diego Foundation. He was named Chinese Academy of Sciences International Professor, Churchill Overseas Fellow at Cambridge University and is Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Research Interests
Julian Schroeder’s research interests focus on elucidating signal transduction mechanisms and pathways that initiate and mediate resistance to environmental abiotic stresses in plants linked to water. Water-linked stresses have substantial negative impacts and reduce plant growth. His research has pioneered the characterization of plant ion channels and their regulation mechanisms with a focus on abiotic stress responses. Schroeder’s research is elucidating the mechanisms mediating gas exchange regulation in plants by stomatal pores through which plants lose over 90% of their water via transpiration. Within this research Schroeder’s laboratory has identified mechanisms, including ion channel regulation mechanisms mediating signaling by the plant stress hormone abscisic acid (ABA). His laboratory is characterizing signal transduction mechanisms in stomatal guard cells in response to drought-induced abscisic acid production and stomatal signaling in response to the continuing rise in atmospheric CO2. In other research Schroeder’s laboratory identified the plant HKT transporters and showed how AtHKT1 in Arabidopsis protects plants from salinity stress. HKT transporter quantitative trait loci are being used by plant scientists and breeders to enhance salt tolerance of major staple crops, including rice and wheat. In other research Schroeder’s laboratory has identified key mechanisms by which plants protect themselves from and accumulate heavy metals, which are important for future engineering of plants for bioremediation of contaminated soils and waters.
