Mary Helen Goldsmith, a plant physiologist and longtime professor who helped create an undergraduate major in environmental studies at Yale, led the Marsh Botanical Garden for 16 years, and was Master (now Head of College) of Silliman College from 1987 to 1994, died at Whitney Center in Hamden, Connecticut on Oct. 2. She was 91.
She was professor emerita of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology and of forestry and environmental studies.
Goldsmith’s research focused attention on the critical role that plant hormones play in guiding plant growth and development, and in relaying information about the surrounding environment to plants. She made seminal contributions to the understanding of the transport of hormones through plant tissues and of the regulation of ion movement across cell membranes. Beyond her research and her teaching, she was a prominent leader nationally in all aspects of plant physiology and served a term as elected president of the American Society of Plant Physiologists (now known as the American Society of Plant Biologists).
Written by Penelope Laurans, full article on Yale News