Roger Beachy is Professor Emeritus of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, where he joined the faculty in the Department of Biology in 1978. He earned a B.A. in education from Goshen College in 1966 and a Ph.D. in plant pathology from Michigan State University in 1973. Beachy's research has centered on plant virology and molecular biology, with a focus on how plant viruses cause disease and strategies to mitigate virus infections. Key areas include the molecular structure and cellular mechanisms of coat protein-mediated resistance against tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), cellular, biochemical, and genetic factors influencing TMV cell-to-cell spread, and the role of host transcription factors in controlling rice tungro bacilliform badnavirus expression. His laboratory employs computational, biochemical, cellular biology, and genetics approaches. Beachy's contributions to Agricultural and Veterinary Science through plant biotechnology have advanced pathogen-derived resistance, exemplified by the development of the first virus-resistant tomato via genetic engineering.

During his career at Washington University, Beachy advanced from assistant professor to full professor and served as Head of the Center for Plant Science and Biotechnology until 1991. He later headed the Plant Biology Division at the Scripps Research Institute from 1991 to 1998, became the founding president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center from 1999 to 2009, and was appointed the first director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture from 2009 to 2011. Beachy has authored more than 260 publications, including the seminal 1986 paper in Science, 'Delay of Disease Development in Transgenic Plants That Express the Tobacco Mosaic Virus Coat Protein Gene,' and others such as 'Role of P30 in replication and spread of TMV' (Traffic, 2000) and 'Transcription factor RF2s alters expression of the rice tungro bacilliform virus promoter in transgenic tobacco plants' (PNAS, 2001). His honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1997, the Wolf Prize in Agriculture in 2001, fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1987, the Ruth Allen Award from the American Phytopathological Society, the Dennis Robert Hoagland Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists, and the Commonwealth Award from the Bank of Delaware. Beachy's work has profoundly impacted agricultural biotechnology and global food security.

Professional Email: rbeachy@wustl.edu