The Richard H. and Elizabeth C. Hageman Distinguished Lectureship in Agricultural Biochemistry

Made possible by a generous endowment provided by Dr. and Mrs. Hageman and hosted by the Kansas State University Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics.

About the Hagemans

Richard H. and Elizabeth C. Hageman 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 nitrite reductase as a distinct enzyme 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

Date	Speaker	Lecture/ Colloquium Titles
2025 April 2-3	Daniel Herschlag Professor of Biochemistry Stanford University	From structure-function to ensemble-function: A new paradigm for quantitative understanding of protein function From ribozymens to RNA-omics: Lessons from decades of research
2022 April 6-7	Daniel Voytas Director, Center for Precision Plant Genomics, University of Minnesota, Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development	Overcoming Bottlenecks in Plant Gene Editing Gene Editing Ushers in a New Era in Plant Agriculture
2019 April 10-11	Harry Klee Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida	The chemistry of tomato flavor: Integrating genetics and biochemistry to elaborate a complex phenotype Rethinking plant breeding to produce healthy food crops that consumers actually want to eat
2017 April 26-27	Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus	Emerging fluorescence technology to study cell architecture and dynamics Imaging cell survival under starvation: role of lipid droplets, mitochondria and autophagy
2016 February 24	Douglas C. Rees Investigator, Howared Hughes Medical Institute, California Institute of Technology, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering	Ironing Out the Nitrogenase Mechanism ABC Transporter Structure and Mechanism
2015 May 11	Randy Schekman 2013 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology	How Cells Export Proteins Mechanism of secretion of large protein complexes and miRNA
2014 November 19-20	Elliot Meyerowitz Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, California Institute of Technology, Division of Biology and Biological Engineering	Physical as well as Chemical Signals Control Plant Development Computational Morphodynamics: an Approach to the Study of Plant Growth and Development
2013 October 16	Kary B. Mullis 1993 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry	The Unusual Origins of PCR
2012 October 24-25	Jeffrey Palmer Indiana University, Bloomington, Department of Biology	Mitochondrial Sex in Plants: Mitochondrial Fusion Drives Horizontal Gene Transfer and Gene Conversion in the Devil's Playground Plants as a model ‘system’ for comparative genomics, evolutionary biology, domestication and discovery research
2012 April 18-19	James Birchler University of Missouri, Columbia, Division of Biological Sciences	Development and Potential Applications of Engineered Minichromosomes in Plants Food in the Future: harvesting the fruits of natural and synthetic genetic diversity
2010 November 3-4	Richard Amasino Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Department of Biochemistry	Memories of winter: vernalization is an environmentally induced epigenetic switch Biochemistry teaching and earth history
2009 November 16-17	May R. Berenbaum University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Department of Entomology	Gut reactions—how insects eat plants BSI—the case of the disappearing bees?
2008 November 5-6	Dale E. Bauman Cornell University, Department of Animal Science	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 October 24-25	Elizabeth Vierling University of Arizona, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry	S-Nitrosoglutathione reductase: A new player in nitrosative stress Genes and gene networks in the response of plants to high temperature
2006 November 8-9	Catharine Ross Pennsylvania State University, Department of Nutritional Sciences	Regulating a key regulator of differentiation - how is the production and metabolism of retonoic acid controlled? Vitamin A status = why it still matters
2005 October 12-13	Steven Tanksley Cornell University, Department of Plant Biology	The Molecular Basis of Quantitative Trait Variation: Examples from the Tomato Use of Wild Genetic Variation in Plant Improvement
2004 October 27-28	Michael Thomashow Michigan State University, Plant Research Laboratory	Gene Regulons and Regulatory Circuits Involved in Plant Cold Acclimation Improving Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance through Genetic Engineering
2003 October 29-30	Bruce Hammock University of California, Davis, Department of Entomology	The 'Juvenile Hormone' of Humans: Biochemistry of Epoxyeicosanoids and Their Role in Disease Treatment Potential and Problems with Recombinant Baculoviruses in Insect Control
2002 October 23-24	Christopher Somerville 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 April 30 - May 1	Virginia Walbot 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 April 20-21	Brian Larkins University of Arizona, Department of Plant Sciences	Molecular Genetic Approaches to Developing Quality Protein Maize Plant Genomics and Genetic Engineering in Agriculture
1999 April 15-16	Maarten J. Chrispeels 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 April 15-16	Eugene W. Nester University of Washington, Department of Microbiology	Agrobacterium: A Natural Genetic Engineer of Higher Plants Analysis and Implication of Inter-kingdom DNA Transfer

The Richard H. and Elizabeth C. Hageman Distinguished Lectureship in Agricultural Biochemistry

About the Hagemans

Hageman Lectures

Date

Speaker

Lecture/ Colloquium Titles