Jon Monroe joined the Biology Department at JMU in 1992 after a 4-year postdoc in the lab of Jack Preiss in the Biochemistry Department at Michigan State University. Before that he received a PhD (1988) in Plant Biology at Cornell University. His BS degree was in Botany at the University of Michigan (1983). Over the years, work in Jon’s lab on various starch hydrolytic enzymes in Arabidopsis has involved over 70 undergraduate students, 4 masters students and 3 postdocs. His group was funded by grants from the NSF, USDA, and the Jeffress Memorial Trust.
In 2023 Jon became Professor Emeritus in Biology and joined the lab of Dr. Chris Berndsen in JMU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry as a Research Associate, fulfilling his career-long dream of becoming a postdoc again. He wrote an essay about this transition that was published in ASBMB Today, Sept 2024, “The fourth third of my career: Living the dream.”
Awards
- 2023 – American Society of Plant Biologists “Fellow of ASPB Award”
- 2018 – JMU College of Science and Mathematics “Madison Scholar Award”
- 2017 – JMU Office of Sponsored Programs, “Research and Scholarship Outstanding Faculty”
- 2011 – JMU Alumni Association “Distinguished Faculty Award”
- 2001 – American Society of Plant Biologists “Excellence in Teaching Award”