Rate My Professor Sarah Assmann

Sarah M. Assmann is the Waller Professor of Plant Biology in the Department of Biology at Pennsylvania State University, where she joined as an associate professor in 1993, was promoted to full professor in 1997, and has held the Waller Chair since 2002. She earned a B.A. in biology magna cum laude from Williams College in 1980 and a Ph.D. in biology from Stanford University in 1986, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of California, Riverside. From 1987 to 1993, she served as assistant and associate professor in Harvard University's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, establishing her independent research program on plant signal transduction.

Assmann's research elucidates the molecular, genetic, and cellular mechanisms by which plants sense and tolerate abiotic stresses, particularly drought and elevated temperatures, focusing on heterotrimeric G protein signaling pathways in guard cells and dynamic RNA secondary structures as environmental sensors. Her lab integrates classical physiology and genetics with genomics and computational approaches, studying model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and staple crop rice to engineer stress-resilient varieties for food security. With over 200 publications cited more than 25,000 times, key contributions include "G Protein Regulation of Ion Channels and Abscisic Acid Signaling in Arabidopsis Guard Cells" (Science, 2001) and "In vivo genome-wide profiling of RNA secondary structure reveals novel regulatory features" (Nature, 2014). She has garnered major honors such as the Masatoshi Nei Innovation Prize in Biology (2025), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009), Penn State Faculty Scholar Medal (2001), and NSF POWRE Award (1999). Assmann led the American Society of Plant Biologists as president (2009–2010) and serves as Editor-in-Chief of The Plant Cell (since 2020), shaping the field of plant stress biology through mentorship of over 50 trainees and leadership in grant-funded initiatives from NSF and USDA-NIFA.