Photo of the Year 2013

Left to right: Robert (Bob) Koester, and Rebecca (Becky) Slattery, two of the five 2013 recipients of Govindjee and Rajni Govindjee Award for Excellence in Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Govindjee (wearing the University of Illinois tie). Bob is a graduate student of Lisa Ainsworth and Becky is a graduate student of Don Ort. The other 3 awardees who could not attend the photo session were: Adriana Corrales Osorio, Samantha Primer, and Robert VanBuren. The plaque in the middle honors two pioneers of the "Light Reactions of Photosynthesis": Robert Emerson (1903-1959) and Eugene Rabinowitch (1898-1973); both were teachers and mentors of Govindjee and Rajni Govindjee. It is Govindjee who made major discoveries in the 1960s in the area of two light reactions and two pigment systems of photosynthesis -- right after the death of Emerson on Feb. 4, 1959; this pioneering work was done in 157 Natural History Building, which is partly seen in the background.

Place: Near the Robert Emerson and Eugene Rabinowitch Plaque on the University of Illinois Campus
Date: May 2, 2013
Photo taken by Joan Huber

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