PULLMAN, Wash. Washington State University graduate student Kim Hixson has been selected to meet with 20 Nobel laureates at the week-long Lindau (Germany) Nobel Laureate Meeting in Europe this summer.
The intergenerational scientific exchange draws the best young researchers worldwide. They use the week to learn from pioneers in their fields and to exchange ideas with international counterparts in the next generation.
Lectures from the laureates and panel discussions cover recent scientific advances and discuss what may be the most fruitful areas of future inquiry.
Hixson is a second year graduate student in the Institute of Biological Chemistry in the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences. She works in the laboratory of Norman G. Lewis. She is also a member of the biotechnology training program supported by the National Institutes of Health. She has B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemistry and is enrolled in the molecular plant sciences program.
“We are delighted to learn that Kim has been selected from this truly outstanding group of students nationally and worldwide,” said Lewis. “This is wonderful recognition of her talent and promise.”
Hixson studies the proteomic changes that occur in Arabidopsis in response to altered arogenate dehydratase (ADT) gene family expression using advanced high-throughput mass spectrometry approaches. ADTs are important in plant systems because they are predominantly responsible for the synthesis of phenylalanine, which itself is a precursor to many highly valuable plant substances, including proteins, various medicinals and lignocellulosic biomass among others.
Hixson’s application was selected from internal nominations through the Office of the Provost.