The Richard H. and Elizabeth C. Hageman

Distinguished Lectureship in Agricultural Biochemistry

Made possible by a generous endowment provided by Dr. and Mrs. Hageman.

Hosted by the Department of Biochemistry, Kansas State University

Richard Harry Hageman grew up in Washington County, Kansas. He obtained his B.S. in Chemistry at K-State and an M.S. at Oklahoma State. Following his experience as a research chemist at experiment stations in Kentucky and Puerto Rico, interrupted by 4 years in the army chemical corps, he returned to graduate school and obtained the Ph. D from the University of California at Berkeley, with D.I. Arnon in 1954. He rose through the ranks at the University of Illinois and in 1984 became Professor Emeritus.

Professor Hageman was recipient of several awards, from the American Society of Agronomy (Crop Science), the American Society of Plant Physiologists (Hoagland), the American Chemical Society (Spencer) and Funke Seed Corn Co. (Funke). In his research, professor Hageman successfully struck a balance between fundamental laboratory research into plant metabolism and application of biochemistry to plant breeding through field studies.

When Richard Hageman was nominated for the first Hoagland award it was pointed out that his distinct contribution was "his formulation, early in his career, that rate-limiting enzymes could be identified and used as a basis to select for specific traits which lead to higher crop yields. This singular focus, which resulted from and contributed to his research on nitrate reductase, is so basic and now so readily understood that it is taken for granted in all of plant science." His major contributions to understanding of plant nitrogen metabolism included the finding that nitrate reductase is an inducible enzyme, and identification of nitrate reductase as a distinct dependent on ferredoxin in chloroplasts.

Elizabeth C. Hageman obtained her B.S. and M.S. degrees at Oklahoma State University. She worked for many years in biochemistry with distinguished scientists including C.H. Li at Berkeley, and G. Hanson and W. Ogren at Illinois. With Professor Hanson, she was involved in pioneering work on in vitro culture of bovine mammary gland tissue.

Richard H. and Elizabeth C. Hageman were married for more than 61 years, until his death in December 2002. They have three children and a baker's dozen of grandchildren.

Hageman Lectures:

2009    May R. Berenbaum      November 16th & 17th
                    University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
                    "Gut reactions--how insects eat plants"
                    “BSI--the case of the disappearing bees?"

2008    Dale E. Bauman      November 5th & 6th
                    Cornell University
                    Regulation of Fat Synthesis: Nutrigenomics and the Low-Fat Milk Syndrome
                    Bioactive Fatty Acids in Milk Fat: Are all trans Fatty Acids the Same?

2007    Elizabeth Vierling      October 24th & 25th
                    University of Arizona
                    “S-Nitrosoglutathione reductase: A new player in nitrosative stress”
                    "Genes and gene networks in the response of plants to high temperature"

2006     Catharine Ross      November 8th & 9th
                    Pennsylvania State University
                    "Regulating a key regulator of differentiation - how is the production and metabolism of retonoic acid controlled?"
                    "Vitamin A status = why it still matters"

2005    Steven Tanksley      October 12th & 13th
                    Cornell University
                    "The Molecular Basis of Quantitative Trait Variation: Examples from the Tomato"
                    "Use of Wild Genetic Variation in Plant Improvement"

2004    Michael Thomashow     October 27th & 28th
                    Michigan State University
                    "Gene Regulons and Regulatory Circuits Involved in Plant Cold Acclimation"
                    "Improving Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance through Genetic Engineering"

2003     Bruce Hammock      October 29th & 30th
                    University of California, Davis
                    "The 'Juvenile Hormone' of Humans: Biochemistry of Epoxyeicosanoids and Their Role in Disease Treatment"
                    "Potential and Problems with Recombinant Baculoviruses in Insect Control"

2002     Christopher Somerville      October 23rd & 24th
                    Stanford University, Carnegie Institution, Department of Plant Biology
                    "Genetic Dissection of Cell Wall Synthesis"
                    "Plant Biology in the Functional Genomics Era & Genetic Analysis of Early Embryo Development in Arabidopsis"

2001     Virginia Walbot     April 30th & May 1st
                    Stanford University, Department of Biological Sciences
                    "Red, Purple, and Blue - How Plants Show Their Colors"
                    "Maize Gene Discovery with ESTs and Mu Transposon Tagging"

2000     Brian Larkins     April 20th & April 21st
                    University of Arizona, Department of Plant Sciences
                    "Molecular Genetic Approaches to Developing Quality Protein Maize"
                    "Plant Genomics and Genetic Engineering in Agriculture"

1999     Maarten J. Chrispeels     April 15th & 16th
                    University of California - San Diego, Department of Biology
                    "Aquaporins: Their Roles in Plant Growth and Development"
                    "The Use of Lectins and Enzyme Inhibitors For Genetic Engineering"

1998     Eugene W. Nester      April 15th & 16th
                    University of Washington, Department of Microbiology
                    "Agrobacterium: A Natural Genetic Engineer of Higher Plants"
                    "Analysis and Implication of Inter-kingdom DNA Transfer"