Charles F. Kettering Award

2026 Winner: Krishna Niyogi

University of California, Berkeley, California

Krishna K. Niyogi is recognized with the ASPB Charles F. Kettering Award for his transformative, career-spanning contributions to understanding and improving photosynthesis. His pioneering genetic and interdisciplinary work established foundational principles of light harvesting regulation and photoprotection, including landmark discoveries defining the xanthophyll pigments central to non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) and genes underlying energy-dependent quenching. By extending these insights across photosynthetic lineages, he uncovered key algal NPQ components and an evolutionarily distinct violaxanthin de-epoxidase, illuminating parallel evolutionary solutions to excess-light stress. His creation and open dissemination of large Chlamydomonas insertional mutant resources enabled broad discovery of genes governing photosystem assembly, repair, and acclimation, accelerating the entire field. Importantly, Niyogi translated understanding of fundamental mechanism into impact when a photoprotection-engineering strategy increased biomass and seed yield in replicated field trials, demonstrating that rational photosynthesis improvement can raise crop productivity.