Michael Freeling

Michael Freeling was a long-time faculty member in the Department of Genetics and subsequently Plant and Microbial Biology at UCB, a groundbreaking plant geneticist, and an inspiring teacher and mentor to 25 doctoral students, 42 post-doctoral students, and countless undergraduates. He was best known for pioneering work on maize anaerobic metabolism and gene regulation, transposon biology, developmental genetics of the maize leaf, proposing (with Jeffrey Bennetzen) grasses as a single genetic system, and the discovery of biased gene retention following whole-genome duplications in plants. As a result of his stellar research, Mike was selected as a Guggenheim Fellow in 1980, elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1994, and awarded the McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics and Genome Studies in 2017.

At UCB Mike taught genetics, comparative genomics, and scientific reasoning to graduate students. He also taught a popular genetics course for non-majors that had various titles over the years but was affectionately known as “Genetics for Poets.” While Mike was known as being somewhat eccentric, he was an unfailingly passionate and inspiring professor in the classroom, the laboratory, the greenhouse, and the cornfield. In his research lab, Mike Freeling created an inclusive environment for graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, and teams of undergraduates. Early in their tenure in Mike’s lab, he counseled his mentees on their research choices; thereafter Mike encouraged them to discover their own research paths, guiding them to become productive scientists in their own right. The result was a continuously large research lab for over fifty years and hundreds of impactful, influential, scientific progeny. 

Mike Freeling’s research interests at UCB comprised four main themes, with lots of overlap and sometimes sudden transitions, all rooted in genetics. In the initial phases, the Freeling lab focused on abiotic stress in maize and the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase. These pioneering investigations during the early days of plant molecular biology soon spawned Freeling's long term fascination with transposon biology, focusing on the genetics of Robertson's Mutator and its interactions with the maize plant. Concurrently, Mike pursued a third, decades-long focus on developmental genetics of the maize leaf, using classical and molecular tools to study KNOTTED1 and dozens of other developmental mutations that are curated by the Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center.  During this time, Mike and Prof Virginia Walbot (Stanford University) co-edited The Maize Handbook, which has served as a fundamental toolkit for subsequent generations of maize biologists.

After a sabbatical at Kew Gardens in 1996, Mike Freeling again refocused the lab to study the evolution of grass genomes; this pivotal worked became his primary research passion until he closed the lab in 2023. It is uncommon for a modern scientist to change their research focus throughout their career, while achieving scholastic leadership in their new fields. Mike Freeling was a true polymath in genetics.

Mike was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana and spent his youth in Portland, Oregon, before receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon. Mike returned to the Midwest for graduate studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, mentored by Drew Schwartz along with Marcus Rhoades, Carlos Williams and Robert Briggs. Mike received his Ph.D. in 1973. Immediately after receiving his degree, Mike accepted a faculty position at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1979 and Full Professor in 1984. During his career, Mike Freeling was awarded an uninterrupted stream of research grant funding from federal agencies including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy. Mike retired from UCB in 2023, but continued his scientific collaborations and writings until the end of his life.

Mike was passionate about many things outside of his productive academic career. He practiced Judo for forty years where he taught adult beginners, helping them to land gently without injury. He loved fishing in Granite Creek at Priest Lake, Idaho over the last 28 years, where he could be found every day at four p.m. during his summer visits. He loved John Waters movies, and all forms of dance, but especially rhythm tap dance that he studied at The Beat in Berkeley, with Gregg Geoffroy. Michael Freeling is survived by his spouse Melissa Quilter, her adult children Alexander and Kathleen, his sons Nathan (Heather) and Marcus (Bethany), and four grandchildren.

Steven Ruzin, UCB Retired
Michael Scanlon, Cornell CALS
Denise Schichnes, UCB
Melissa Quilter