Biography:Vivian Irish

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Short description: American biologist
Vivian Irish
Alma materWesleyan University, Harvard University
Known forABC Model
Scientific career
FieldsFloral development
InstitutionsYale University
Doctoral advisorBill Gelbart
Other academic advisorsMichael Akam, Ian Sussex

Vivian Irish is an American evolutionary biologist. She is currently Chair & Eaton Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University.[1] Her research focuses on floral development.[2] She was president of Society for Developmental Biology in 2012 [3] and currently serves as an editor for the journals Developmental Biology and Evolution & Development.[4]

Personal life

Irish was drawn into research from a young age when visiting the Boston Science Museum.[5] She has taught numerous undergraduate students at Yale University and focused on the importance of evidence-based thinking. She began working with Arabidopsis as it was becoming a model organism, serving as a "botanical Drosophila".

Education

Irish received a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University while mentored by Bill Gelbart. Her first postdoctoral fellowship was at Cambridge University, where she studied Drosophila with Michael Akam and her second postdoctoral fellowship focused on plant development with Ian Sussex at Yale.[6]

Current research

Irish has been a faculty member at Yale since 1991.[1] In her present position as chair of the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology department, she helped to create a degree path for a Neuroscience major in collaboration with Yale's Psychology Department.[7] The Irish lab does work on plant development and stem cell proliferation in plants, particularly as it pertains to the formation and growth of a flower's petal.[4] This has also included research into the morphogenesis of thorns in Citrus, which was found to be related to the rest of lateral stem cells.[8]

Her work has been influential in the development of the ABC model of development, specifically with the genes APETALA1, APETALA3, and PISTILLA MADS-box genes.[9] Irish is generally interested in patterns and timing of development, which she has explored through fate maps and gene expression[10]

Awards, prizes, and honors

  • 2019, Inducted into the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering[11]
  • 2012, President of the Society for Developmental Biology
  • 2011, Visiting Professor at ENS in Lyons, France
  • 1989, National Science Fellowship Post-doc
  • 1986, Jane Coffin Childs Fellow at University of Cambridge[12]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Vivian Irish, Ph.D. | Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology" (in en). https://mcdb.yale.edu/people/vivian-irish. 
  2. "Society for Developmental Biology | Resource". https://www.sdbonline.org/Resource?s=vivian%20irish&ResourceID=2029. 
  3. "Society for Developmental Biology | SDB Past Presidents". https://www.sdbonline.org/sdb_past_presidents?s=vivian%20irish&ResourceID=0. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Vivian Irish, Ph.D. | Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology" (in en). https://mcdb.yale.edu/people/vivian-irish. 
  5. Irish, Vivian (2018). "Q&A with Vivian Irish". Current Biology 28: R635–R655. 
  6. "People | Irish Laboratory". https://irishlab.yale.edu/people/people. 
  7. Xiong, Amy (12 April 2017). "University to offer neuroscience major" (in en). https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/04/12/university-to-offer-neuroscience-major/. 
  8. Zhang, Fei; Rossignol, Pascale; Huang, Tengbo; Wang, Yewei; May, Alan; Dupont, Christopher; Orbovic, Vladimir; Irish, Vivian F. (2020-08-03). "Reprogramming of Stem Cell Activity to Convert Thorns into Branches" (in en). Current Biology 30 (15): 2951–2961.e5. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.05.068. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 32559443. 
  9. Kramer, Elena M.; Dorit, Robert L.; Irish, Vivian F. (1998-06-01). "Molecular Evolution of Genes Controlling Petal and Stamen Development: Duplication and Divergence Within the APETALA3 and PISTILLATA MADS-Box Gene Lineages" (in en). Genetics 149 (2): 765–783. doi:10.1093/genetics/149.2.765. ISSN 0016-6731. PMID 9611190. PMC 1460198. https://www.genetics.org/content/149/2/765. 
  10. Irish, V. F.; Sussex, I. M. (1992-07-01). "A fate map of the Arabidopsis embryonic shoot apical meristem" (in en). Development 115 (3): 745–753. doi:10.1242/dev.115.3.745. ISSN 0950-1991. https://dev.biologists.org/content/115/3/745. 
  11. "Yale faculty honored by Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering" (in en). 2019-02-20. https://news.yale.edu/2019/02/20/yale-faculty-honored-connecticut-academy-science-and-engineering. 
  12. "Former Fellows". https://www.jccfund.org/former/.