Elizabeth Haswell

Elizabeth Haswell earned her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco in 2000, working on chromatin remodeling in yeast. She then switched to plant systems for her postdoctoral work as a Life Sciences Research Fellow at Caltech, where she fell in love with plants and mechanobiology. In 2007, she joined the faculty in the Biology department at Washington University in Saint Louis, where she is now a Professor of Biology and HHMI-Simons Faculty Scholar. Her group there...See more

Elizabeth Haswell earned her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco in 2000, working on chromatin remodeling in yeast. She then switched to plant systems for her postdoctoral work as a Life Sciences Research Fellow at Caltech, where she fell in love with plants and mechanobiology. In 2007, she joined the faculty in the Biology department at Washington University in Saint Louis, where she is now a Professor of Biology and HHMI-Simons Faculty Scholar. Her group there aims to identify the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which plants perceive force, with a particular focus on mechanosensitive ion channels. Liz is a Senior Editor for The Plant Cell and Director of Research for the NSF Science and Technology Center for Engineering Mechanobiology. She serves on the North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee and the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee and is an AAAS Council Delegate. She is an advocate for science communication and for an academic culture that values sustainability, diversity, and authenticity. She is also a co-host of the Plantae podcast, The Taproot. See less