Daniel Kramer, a second year Ph.D. student in Professor Stone Chen’s research group, has been awarded the Print and Grace Powers Hudson Scholarship in Agriculture by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for the 2018-19 academic year.  This scholarship of $1,000 is designated for students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences pursuing a Ph.D. or M.S. degree.

Daniel’s research aims to understand the fundamental mechanisms by which membrane receptors regulate the actin cytoskeleton to control neuron development.  His recent work has uncovered novel interactions between two neuronal receptors and a central actin regulator named the WAVE Regulatory Complex (WRC). These interactions, likely evolutionarily conserved from human to nematode worms, direct high-order dendrite branching in neurons. Highly branched dendrites are the foundation for the nervous system to develop complex neuronal circuits. By elucidating the biochemical and structural basis of these interactions, Daniel’s work will advance our understanding of the molecular basis of neuron morphogenesis.

The Print and Grace Powers Hudson Scholarship in Agriculture is named in honor of Dr. Print Hudson and his wife, Grace Powers Hudson.  Dr. Hudson taught at Iowa State before moving to Washington in 1931 as a research fellow at the Brookings Institution.  He later joined the Department of Agriculture and in 1945, was named chief of the U.S. agricultural mission to Greece.  He continued in Foreign Service as an Agricultural Attaché to a number of U. S. Embassies for other countries in Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia before his retirement.  Dr. Hudson died in 1998, and Mrs. Hudson died in 2005.