James Carrington is President of the Danforth Plant Science Center. He has studied the diversity and functions of endogenous small RNA pathways that control gene silencing in plants and other organisms. He also identified and characterized key principles of virus-host interactions, including the role of RNA silencing in antiviral defense. Currently, his work focuses on the function and diversification of RNA silencing pathways that affect development and disease in model plants and pathogens.

"President, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center since 2011 Director of the Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing (CGRB), the Stewart Professor for Gene Research, and Distinguished Professor of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University (2001-2011) University of California, Riverside B.S. in Plant Sciences in 1982 University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. in Plant Pathology in 1986 Member of the National Academy of Science in 2008 Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, the American Phytopathological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science Awards: Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, Ruth Allen Award from the American Society for Phytopathology, Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation"