Thursday, March 27, 2025
Over the last three decades, UNT’s Kent Chapman has built an internationally recognized research program in plant biochemistry and cell biology.
Kent Chapman, Regents Professor of biochemistry at the University of North Texas College of Science, is now a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Becoming an AAAS fellow is one of the most prestigious professional distinctions in science. Since 1874, AAAS has annually recognized a select group of distinguished scientists, engineers and innovators as fellows for their achievements in research, teaching and technology as well as their excellence in communicating and interpreting science to the public.
Chapman joins only a handful of faculty members elected as AAAS fellows while at UNT. Most recently, Angela Wilson, former UNT Regents Professor of chemistry, was named a fellow in 2012. Chapman’s long-time biochemistry colleague, Richard Dixon, UNT Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus, also earned the accolade in 2002.
“This is a tremendous honor,” Chapman says. “I’ve always held in great esteem my colleagues
who were AAAS fellows, so to now have that title myself, I am humbled. It’s a crowning
achievement for me for a life dedicated to science.”
Understanding Plant Lipids
Chapman has spent his entire professional academic career at UNT, building an internationally
recognized research program in plant biochemistry and cell biology over the last three
decades. His research — which has been funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S.
National Science Foundation and others — specifically investigates lipid metabolism,
storage and signaling in plants.
Lipids are the fatty compounds that make up all biological membranes including those that are used to define cells — the basic functional unit of all living organisms. In plants, lipids are vital in processes like defining their structure and storing energy. Lipids also are involved in how plants communicate with their environment and other organisms to help them grow, respond to stress and receive nutrients.
“Understanding how plants make lipids and being able to manipulate that process can solve a lot of societal problems, such as providing alternative fuel and electricity sources,” Chapman says. “Knowing more about that communication process and those chemical cues between plants and their microbial environment is important for agriculture. It could help us more effectively grow food crops to better feed the world.”
As research technology and techniques advance, Chapman says his work has evolved and has enabled him to study plants from new perspectives and opened new avenues of scientific inquiry. For instance, focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy is now allowing him to view the three-dimensional structural organization of plants at a molecular scale.
“I’ve been wanting to study how organelles are formed inside cells for years,” he
says. “Focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy can help us to see things at
the highest magnification and resolution currently possible, so we can further investigate
the microscopic details of how plants function at the subcellular level.”
Expanding Plant Science
Chapman’s scholarly contributions to the fundamental understanding of plant lipids
have been published in top scientific journals and regularly put him among the world’s
most cited researchers each year.
But he considers his greatest contribution to be the dozens of aspiring plant researchers he’s mentored and trained as students and postdoctoral researchers over the years.
“I wouldn’t be an AAAS fellow if it had not been for the hard work of the people that have worked for me,” Chapman says. “They’ve all been outstanding in their own regard and in their own achievements. It’s been a joy to watch many of them go on to lead successful careers in science.”
When Chapman first started at UNT in 1993, there was only one other faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences who studied plants. Now, there are more than a dozen and UNT has become a recognized research hub for plant science. Chapman was a founding member and served as director from 2018-2024 of UNT’s BioDiscovery Institute, which unites faculty from the College of Engineering and College of Science in engineering biological processes to create a sustainable bio-based economy.
Among his many recent professional accomplishments, Chapman was elected the president of the American Society of Plant Biologists earlier this year and he earned the Terry Galliard Medal for his research contributions in plant lipid biochemistry in 2020. He also serves as the executive editor for Progress in Lipid Research and reviewing editor for The Plant Cell. In 2009, Chapman proposed and co-chaired the inaugural Gordon Research Conference on Plant Lipids, which is now a permanent biennial event.
For this latest award, Chapman will be recognized along with other new AAAS fellows at the annual Fellows Forum June 7 in Washington, D.C.
From UNT News – Research by Heather Noel