Dr. Douglas D. Randall Biochemistry B.S., South Dakota State University, 1965 Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1970

Douglas D. Randall is originally from South Dakota where he attended South Dakota State University on a General Motors Corporation Scholarship and majored in chemistry. As an undergraduate, Randall began his research career in the USDA-ARS’s North Grain Insects Research Laboratory characterizing enzymes from insect blood and isolating insect feeding attractants from plants. Randall earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Michigan State University where he studied the enzymes involved in plant photorespiration with N.E. Tolbert. He had an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship to further study the interacting functions of photorespiration and respiration with Lester J. Reed at the Clayton Foundation Biochemical Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. Studies with Reed focused on the regulation of alpha ketoacid dehydrogenase complexes. In 1971, Randall joined the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) faculty in the Agricultural Chemistry Department as a plant biochemist. He is currently professor of biochemistry at MU.

Since joining MU, Randall’s research has focused on plant metabolism, signal transduction, regulation of plant enzymes and understanding the metabolic interactions between photosynthesis, photorespiration and respiration. One primary theme of his research has been the characterization of the plant alpha ketoacid dehydrogenase multi-enzyme complexes including identify the genes, import and assembly of the component subunits and the regulation of the complexes in various organelles. These multi-enzyme complexes (up to 200 proteins) occupy strategic positions in plant metabolism and are critical to energy production and oil biosynthesis. His research team established the first plant enzyme to be regulated by reversible phosphorylation and they established that this biochemical switch mechanism regulates which pathway supports mitochondrial energy production during photosynthesis. His work on plant protein phosphorylation led to the founding of the nationwide Plant Protein Phosphorylation Working Group involving over 45 research teams. His interactions and collaborations with plant biology colleagues at MU led to the establishment of the Interdisciplinary Plant Biochemistry and Physiology Group in 1981. Under Randall’s directorship and MU’s Food for 21st Century Program, this group has grown from nine to over forty research teams. He has also been active in developing the Life Sciences Center at MU and the Donald Danforth Plant Sciences Center in St. Louis.

Randall has served on the editorial boards of Plant Physiology, Annual Reviews of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology, Protein Expression and Purification, Biochemical Archives and Current Topics in Plant Biochemistry and Physiology. He is a past officer and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the American Society of Plant Biologists. Currently serves on Science Liaison Committee for the Danforth Plant Science Center and continues efforts to facilitate interdisciplinary research and training.

He has received various awards and honors including MU’s William H. Byler Distinguished Professor Award, a Faculty/Alumni Award from MU, South Dakota State University’s Distinguished Alumni Award, Michigan State Biochemistry Department’s Alumni Award, and MU’s Gold Chalk Teaching award. In 1973, he was chosen to be a member of NSF’s Great Barrier Reef expedition to study photorespiration in marine photosynthetic organisms.

Randall was appointed to the National Science Board in 2002.

July 2004