AMES, Iowa -- The Botanical Society of America (BSA) awarded its highest honor to Harry (Jack) Horner, University Professor of liberal arts and sciences at Iowa State University.
BSA's Merit Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the science of botany. A leading specialist on plant ultrastructure, Horner has earned an international reputation for his pioneering research. He studies the mechanisms that control male sterility in certain crop plants and floral nectaries, and the involvement of calcium oxalate crystals in plant growth and development. The crystals are inorganic structures that form inside some cells within flowers, seeds, leaves, stems and roots in many evergreens and the majority of flowering plants.
Horner is professor of genetics, development and cell biology, and director of Iowa State's Bessey Microscopy Facility.
The BSA promotes botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, function, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere.