A gift from Frederick Kavanagh endowed an award to honor the memory of Jeanette Siron Pelton, an inspiring teacher whose special field had been plant morphogenesis. The Pelton Award, which carries a stipend of $1,000, is made from time to time to recognize sustained and imaginative contributions in the field of experimental plant morphology, broadly defined to include subcellular, cellular and organismal levels of complexity. Candidates are selected by a committee appointed by the Botanical Society of America and submitted to the Foundation for final approval.
The first recipient in 1969 was Ralph H. Wetmore of Harvard University; the second, in 1970, was Claude W. Wardlaw of the University of Manchester, England. Both were near the end of very distinguished careers. In 1971 the Foundation, wishing to encourage younger investigators, requested the Pelton Award Committee to nominate candidates in the earlier stages of their careers.
The investigators who have received the Pelton Award include:
2000 – Ben J. G. Scheres, University of Utrecht
2002 – Karl J. Niklas, Cornell University
2004 – William Friedman, University of Colorado, Boulder