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Barbara Schaal is the Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. She was born in Berlin, Germany and grew up in Chicago. She graduated from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and earned a Ph.D from Yale University. She is a plant evolutionary biologist who uses DNA sequences to understand evolutionary processes such as gene flow, geographical differentiation and the domestication of crop species.

At Washington University she has served as Chair of the Department of biology and Dean of Arts and Sciences. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and U.S. National Academy of Sciences where she served as vice president for eight years. She was appointed as a U.S. science envoy by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She has been President of the Botanical Society of America, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was a member of President Obama's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology from 2009 to 2017. She received the U.S. National Science Board’s Public Service Medal in 2019.