Joanne Chory is using plants to save the planet

Story by Sarah Kaplan

Illustration by Stef Wong

Photos by Jane Hahn

April 28, 2021

The world was running out of time, and so was Joanne Chory.

The 63-year-old biologist was nearing the end of a distinguished career researching how plants grow. Now she’d won the most prestigious honor in her field, the Breakthrough Foundation’s life sciences prize, which came with a $3 million check and an opportunity to address inventors and well-heeled donors at a glitzy Silicon Valley awards ceremony in December 2017.

About this series

Climate Visionaries highlights brilliant people around the world who are working to find climate solutions.

The audience expected Chory to reflect on her achievements. Instead, she seized the chance to issue a warning.

Human-caused climate change was putting humanity’s future in peril, she said in recorded remarks. Survival would depend on Earth’s original carbon-capture machines, the most effective tools for getting rid of greenhouse gases.

Read the full article on washingtonpost.com