Xuemei Chen (; born 1966) is a

Chinese-American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from m ...

molecular biologist Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

. She is the Furuta Chair Professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences at the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...

. She was elected to the US

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 2013.

Early life and education

Chen tied the top high school exam score in her province and was allowed to study plant physiology at

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

, where she graduated in 1988. The China-United States Biochemistry Examination and Application program awarded her a scholarship to graduate school at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. While at Cornell's

Boyce Thompson Institute The Boyce Thompson Institute (previously: Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research) is an independent research institute devoted to using plant sciences to improve agriculture, protect the Environment (biophysical), environment, and enhance hea ...

she studied the gene expression of chloroplasts and earned her Ph.D. in 1995. Her postdoctoral work was carried out (studying the genetics of floral patterning) at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

Career

In 1999 Chen started work as an assistant professor at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

Waksman Institute of Microbiology The Waksman Institute of Microbiology is a research facility on the Busch Campus of Rutgers University. It is named after Selman Waksman, a student and then faculty member at Rutgers who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1952 for research which l ...

. In 2002 she was part of a team that discovered that

MicroRNA MicroRNA (miRNA) are small, single-stranded, non-coding RNA molecules containing 21 to 23 nucleotides. Found in plants, animals and some viruses, miRNAs are involved in RNA silencing and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. miRN ...

existed in plants. This work led her to win the 2005 Board of Trustees' Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence concurrent with a promotion to associate professor; in 2005 she moved to

(UCR) and was promoted to full professor in 2009. In 2011 she was named a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

for "pioneering discoveries in the field of plant biology in small RNA metabolism and plant development." That year she was also named a Plant Biology Investigator (an award of ) by the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

and the

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is an American foundation established by Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore and his wife Betty I. Moore in September 2000 to support scientific discovery, environmental conservation, patient care improvements a ...

. In 2013 Chen was elected to the

: the third member from UCR's Center for Plant Cell Biology and sixth from the university's College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

Publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Xuemei 1966 births Living people Scientists from Harbin University of California, Riverside faculty Peking University alumni Cornell University alumni Rutgers University faculty Plant physiologists Chinese emigrants to the United States American women biologists Chinese women biologists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American molecular biologists Chinese molecular biologists Educators from Heilongjiang Biologists from Heilongjiang Writers from Harbin American women academics 21st-century American women