For Immediate Release

Sharlene Weatherwax Appointed Acting Division Director for Life and Medical Sciences DOE-BER

Dr. Jerry Elwood, Acting Associate Director for Biological and Environmental Research, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy announced October 31 that Dr. Sharlene Weatherwax is detailed until the end of February to the position of Acting Division Director for Life and Medical Sciences in the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy. Since joining BER in March 2005, she has served as a program manager in the Life and Medical Sciences Division with responsibilities for managing components of the Genomics: GTL program dealing with plant and microbial biology. She will continue with responsibilities for this position. She was an organizer for the joint SC-EERE research agenda laid out in Breaking the Biological Barriers to Cellulosic Ethanol and has participated in a number of interagency initiatives. Prior to joining BER, she was a program manager for the Energy Biosciences program in the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Dr. Elwood noted.
Dr. Weatherwax earned her B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her Ph.D. in biochemistry on microbial genetics and enzymology from UC Berkeley in 1989. Her work as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Plant Biology and subsequently as an independent researcher included the study of light- and hormone-regulated plant gene expression.