UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Michael Axtell, professor of biology at Penn State, has been selected to receive the title of distinguished professor of biology in recognition of his exceptional record of teaching, research, and service to the University community. The honor is designated by the Office of the President of Penn State based on the recommendations of colleagues and the dean of the Eberly College of Science.

Axtell studies a class of genes which produce small RNAs, using diverse plant species. Small RNAs, which function as sequence-specific repressors of other genes, are critical components of gene expression in nearly all eukaryotic organisms and are especially important for regulating the developmental programs of both animals and plants. Axtell’s research group uses computational methods to discover, annotate, and quantify small RNA genes in plants. His group also uses genetics, molecular biology, and genomics to study the function of ancient small RNAs in diverse plant species, identify the genes that are the targets of small RNA repression, and understand the sequence requirements of the interaction of small RNAs and their targets.

Axtell is a member of the American Society of Plant Biologists. His research accomplishments have been recognized with a Faculty Scholar Medal from Penn State in 2019, the Masatoshi Nei Innovation Prize in Biology from Penn State in 2018, the Dean’s Award in Natural Sciences and Mathematics from Ithaca College in 1998, and a Past Presidents Award from the Phi Kappa Phi honorary society at Ithaca College in 1998. He received a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2004, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in 1998, a Berkeley Fellowship in 1998, and a Barry M. Goldwater Fellowship in 1997.

Axtell joined the faculty at Penn State in August 2006 as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 2011 and professor in 2016. Prior to this, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Axtell earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at Ithaca College in 1998. He earned a doctoral degree in plant biology at the University of California at Berkeley in 2003.