Profile of Deborah P. Delmer

For small-scale African farmers, “we are trying strategies to optimize yield under conditions of stress and low inputs.”

In 2001, Deborah P. Delmer, then chair of the Section of Plant Biology at the University of California, Davis (Davis, CA), reached a crossroads in her life. She had already amassed a long and distinguished research career in plant biology, having been one of the first to uncover the enzymes and biochemical mechanisms for tryptophan synthesis, protein glycosylation, sucrose degradation, and, most importantly, cellulose biosynthesis. Although questions about the biochemistry of plant cells constantly remained, Delmer was ready for something different.

“At that point, my husband had passed away and my daughter, who had grown up mostly in Israel and didn't particularly like Davis, had gone back to Jerusalem to finish high school and go to the Israeli army,” she recalls. “So I was on my own and I began thinking, `Life is short, and I need one more challenge in my life.'” She then remembered something that her father, Thomas Pierson, who had been a physician in rural Indiana, had told her about medicine: “He said, `What's great about medicine is that you can do science, which is fascinating, but you can also help people.' And you know what, I really would like to do some good in the world, but what could I do as a plant biologist?”

Delmer then discovered that The Rockefeller Foundation, a global philanthropic group based in New York, was looking for someone who had broad experience in plant biochemistry and molecular biology. “They wanted someone to help them make decisions on how the new, high-end plant science would be relevant to their grant-making in support of programs aimed at crop improvement,” she says. Delmer felt drawn to this opening, and in January 2002, she closed her own laboratory and accepted the position as The Rockefeller Foundation's Associate Director for Food Security.

In her …