Please join me in congratulating Roger Innes, Distinguished Professor of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, on his election to the National Academy of Sciences as a member of its 2025 cohort for his “distinguished and ongoing achievements in original research.”
Professor Innes, who is also an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology, studies plant immune systems with the goal of finding more ecologically sound ways of protecting plants from pathogens and insects—research that could lead to an increase in yields of crops like soybeans while simultaneously reducing overall costs for farmers.
Innes’ colleague, Distinguished Professor of Biology Craig Pikaard, noted in a recent story on his research, “One of the things I think is most exciting about Roger’s work is that they’ve taken basic knowledge of how the plant immune system works and can hack it. They understand it well enough to actually engineer plants to respond to things they don’t normally respond to, including some really problematic pests...If you work in plants as I do, anywhere you travel, people know Roger. He raises the caliber of what IU is known for.”
Congratulations, Professor Innes!
