Mary-Dell Chilton Dies at 87; Helped Create First Genetically Modified Plant

When Mary-Dell Chilton, then known as Mary-Dell Matchett, enrolled at the University of Illinois in the 1950s, women were discouraged from pursuing careers in science. That didn’t stop her from planning to major in physics, but falling asleep in the dull freshman lectures did. She also considered astronomy, but was told by a professor that she could not take courses on the subject until her sophomore year.

“The hell with that,” she recalled thinking, in a 2008 interview with Scientific American.

Instead, she chose chemistry. She would go on to become a pioneering figure in agricultural biotechnology, leading the research team recognized for creating the first genetically modified plant, in 1982 — a discovery that would transform global agriculture.

Dr. Chilton and her colleagues developed a method for inserting the genes of a foreign organism into a plant, which would eventually result in higher-yielding crops that resisted insects and disease and tolerated extreme weather.

At her retirement party in 2018, her son Mark Chilton later said, “I had everyone raise a glass to the astronomy professor who turned her away.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/16/science/mary-dell-chilton-dead.html