Elizabeth “Toby” Kellogg Celebrated with Danforth Award for Plant Science

On Thursday, December 5, Elizabeth A. “Toby” Kellogg, PhD, Danforth Center Member and Robert E. King Distinguished Investigator was presented the Danforth Award for Plant Science. The award recognizes outstanding scientists whose exceptional contributions to plant biology, agriculture, or fields relevant to the Danforth Center have made them leaders in their field.

More than 100 family, friends and colleagues gathered in the Langenberg Theater to celebrate Kellogg’s scientific legacy. Her career has focused on the study of plants essential to both human civilization and wildlife: cereal crops and their wild relatives in the grass family. Her pioneering work has revealed the genetic and developmental bases of morphological, anatomical and physiological features of plants that comprise vital native grasslands and some of our most important domesticated crops. 

Kellogg’s lasting mark on plant biology has been recognized in numerous ways. She is an elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences and an Académica (Fellow) of the Academia Nacional de Ciencias, Argentina. She has had a tremendous impact on the lives of her students and has trained students, postdocs, and visiting scientists from all over the world, most of whom now are leaders in plant science due to her mentorship.

Danforth Center President and CEO Jim Carrington, PhD, Interim Vice President for Research Becky Bart, PhD, and University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL) Biology Department Chair Bethany Zolman, PhD, spoke about the impact of Kellogg’s work during the award ceremony. 

After reviewing Kellogg’s many contributions to science and the Danforth Center, Carrington commented, “You’ve been a ground-breaking scientist, a treasured collaborator, and an inspiring teacher and mentor. You embody our values and represent us well. We recognize you for your stellar contributions to science and for your transformative contributions to the Danforth Center and impact in the broader St. Louis community.” 

Bart reflected back to 2013 when they both joined the Danforth Center. “Toby was an established scientist, and I was fresh from my postdoc. I quickly realized that she was someone you can go to for advice,” she said. “Toby has been a clear, steady, and ego-free voice lobbying for scientific excellence at the Center because she truly believes in the power of high-quality rigorous science. Thank you for being this shining example.”

Zolman, Kellogg’s colleague at UMSL spoke about her many contributions to the more than 1,000 students she taught and mentored during her time at the university. “Toby was a major contributor to training the next generation of plant scientists. She was a renaissance instructor,”  she said. Zollman also shared some humorous comments from some of her previous students,  “Her class was hard, and you had to be specific in your answers, but it was one of the best classes I ever had,” noting that she genuinely cares about the success of her students. 

After receiving such high praise from her colleagues, Kellogg took the stage to share her journey, reflecting on her career, her passion for plant science, and all that led her to this moment. She expressed gratitude to everyone who spoke, family, friends and colleagues who had supported her throughout her career. 

“This award in many ways is an award for basic research, or perhaps crop-adjacent research, or use-informed basic research, the kind of work where the application is not immediate and may be many years in the future.”

In her remarks, she elaborated, “Basic research provides the infrastructure for the rest of science. If the people who start companies are artists, I’m the one who provides the paint. If the people breeding crops are builders, I’m the one who makes the rivets.”  

Kellogg closed by addressing the question of human motivation—why do science if you don’t see an immediate application?  “My motivation is a lot harder to describe, but I think it is about that little voice that says, “I don’t know the answer to that question—I’d better figure it out.” And then an even more deeply motivating thought, “I don’t know the answer to that question, and nobody else knows either. It’s on me.”

Kellogg joins the ranks of some of the most influential plant scientists of the last half century who received the award: David Baulcombe, Mary Dell Chilton, Norman Borlaug, Segenet Kelemu, the late Joanne Chory, and most recently, her colleague Toni Kutchan.