Arthur R. Grossman


Arthur Robert Grossman is an American biologist whose research ranges across the fields of plant biology, microbiology, marine biology, Phytochemistry, and photosynthesis. He has been a Staff Scientist at Carnegie Institution for Science’s Department of Plant Biology since 1982, and holds a courtesy appointment as Professor in the Department of Biology at Stanford. He has mentored more than fifteen PhD students and more than thirty post-doctoral fellows. Grossman was the recipient of the Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal in 2009 and the Darbaker Prize for work on microalgae in 2002. He is Co-Editor in Chief of Journal of Phycology, and has served on the editorial boards of major biological journals including the Annual Review of Genetics, Eukaryotic Cell, Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Molecular Plant among others. He has also served on many committees and panels that evaluate scientific directions for the various granting agencies, universities and government departments. He was elected the co-Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Photosynthesis in 2015, and will be Chair again in 2017. He also currently serves as Chief of Genetics at Solazyme Inc. which applies plant biology to create oils.

Education

Grossman received his undergraduate degree in Biology with Honors, from Brooklyn College, and his Ph.D. in 1978 from Indiana University. From 1978-1982 he was a postdoctoral fellow at The Rockefeller University, Department of Cell Biology with Nam-Hai Chua and joined the Department of Plant Biology of the Carnegie Institution for Science as a Staff Scientist in 1982.

Scientific contributions

Throughout his career, Grossman has focused on understanding the mechanism of microbial photosynthesis, and its role in areas ranging from the ocean environment to applications in biotechnology. Although he has worked with numerous model organisms, he is best known for his work with Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, on which genome project he was co-PI.

Selected bibliography