Salk scientist Joseph Ecker awarded McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics and Genome Studies

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Salk scientist Joseph Ecker awarded McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics and Genome Studies

October 10, 2025

LA JOLLA-Joseph Ecker, PhD, has been awarded the 2026 Barbara McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics and Genome Studies from the Maize Genetics Cooperation, a global organization of maize geneticists and breeders. The prize honors "the most outstanding plant scientists working on both genetics and genomics in the present era." It is named after distinguished plant biologist Barbara McClintock, whose work in maize genetics earned her the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Ecker is a professor and director of the Genomic Analysis Laboratory at Salk, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and holder of the Salk International Council Chair in Genetics. He is also key advisor to Salk's Harnessing Plants Initiative, which aims to optimize plants' natural traits to produce more productive, resilient crops for a growing global population.

"Joe has consistently and with great curiosity shaped the field of plant genetics," says Salk President Gerald Joyce, MD, PhD. "His ideas and experimental rigor have driven important advances that have proved essential for the future of agriculture and our planet, and this award is a well-deserved recognition of his ongoing impact."

Ecker's research explores the epigenome-the layer of chemical tags that sit on top of DNA sequences to control gene expression, or what genes are turned "on" and "off." He is a leader in the use of sequencing technologies for genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation, chromatin conformation, transcription, and gene function in single cells.

In 2000, Ecker co-directed an international effort to sequence the first complete plant genome (Arabidopsis thaliana). Since then, his lab has generated many critical genomic atlases, including his 2025 publication of the first to span the entire Arabidopsis life cycle.

Ecker's work has also revealed more intricate details about plant immunity, drought recovery, and the evolution of modern photosynthesis. These insights can be used to pinpoint genes that help plants adapt to environmental stressors, such as disease or extreme weather, which scientists can then work to enhance in vulnerable species.

"For more than four decades, Joe Ecker has pushed the envelope of modern genetics," says Salk Nonresident Fellow Detlef Weigel, PhD, who received the McClintock Prize in 2019. "The greatest service, however, to plant biology has perhaps been that Joe has leveraged his technical acumen and ingenuity to become a leader in the field of human brain development, by revealing the enormous diversity of brain cell types at both the genetic and epigenetic level-thereby teaching the scientific community at large how important lessons from plant genetics and genomics are for human biology and health."

Ecker has repeatedly been named among the most highly cited researchers in the world by Clarivate, and has led or participated in many prestigious collaborations, such as the National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative and Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance. He has also received other recent honors like the 2024 Arabidopsis Community Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2024 Ilchun Molecular Medicine Award from the Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.