NC State’s José Alonso Elected to National Academy of Sciences
José Alonso, a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor and University Faculty Scholar in plant and microbial biology at North Carolina State University, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the world’s most important and influential scientific societies.
Alonso, who studies molecular circuits in plants to answer fundamental questions about how they grow and respond to the environment, was elected for distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. He is one of 120 U.S. members and 25 international members elected in 2026.
Frequently ranked among most-cited scientists, Alonso has focused on molecular circuits — networks within plants that respond to signals from cells and the external environment. He has explored interactions involving two plant hormones, ethylene and auxin, that control plant growth, development and responses to stress.
With his wife and longtime scientific collaborator, Anna N. Stepanova, Ph.D., Alonso runs a lab that takes a multifaceted approach to this research, incorporating genetics, molecular biology, genomics, metabolomics, cell biology and computation.
Alonso has helped accelerate progress in plant genetic research by building a public library of Arabidopsis plants, a model species used in plant biology research, with specific genes turned off. Using these “knockout” plants greatly simplifies research on gene function.
In 2024, Alonso was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for his distinguished contributions to the field of plant biology, particularly in using recombineering approaches in his research.
To build curiosity among the next generation of scientists, Alonso and Stepanova have led the Plants4Kids outreach program since 2011. The K-12 bilingual (English-Spanish) modules, which are available online, provide instructions for at-home experiments with plants.
Alonso grew up among farms and groves of oranges on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Had his father not died when he was an infant, he would have likely joined the family farming business. Instead, he chose to study biology. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry in 1988 and a Ph.D. in biology and biochemistry in 1994, both from the Universitat de Valencia in Spain. He joined the NC State faculty in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology in 2001 after completing postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania and the Salk Institute.
This post was originally published in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences News.
