DeLill Nasser

DeLill S. Nasser (1929–2000) was an American geneticist who was referred to by R. Scott Hawley as the "patron saint of real genetics". Nasser attended State High School and went on to obtain a Bachelor's of Science from Indiana State University. She received a Master's degree for bacteriology in 1955 from Purdue University and became a graduate research assistant in 1956. She was also a class instructor at the time and worked at Eli Lilly and Company. and graduated with a doctorate in 1964. She then took a postdoctoral position at the University of Washington in the lab of Eugene Nester.

Career Nasser applied for and received a professorship in 1967 at the University of Florida's Department of Bacteriology. Therefore, beginning in 1978, she was made associate program director for the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences in the NSF. In 1980, she was a staunch supporter and funder through her NSF position of the researchers who would begin the genetics work on Arabidopsis thaliana that would lead to it becoming a model organism in the field. and the Society of American Bacteriologists.

Awards The Director's Award was given to Nasser at the December 7, 2000 meeting of the National Science Foundation at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory meeting, but she was unable to attend and receive the award in person due to the ongoing effects of cancer. In 2001, after Nasser's death, the Genetics Society of America established the DeLill Nasser Award for Professional Development in Genetics to be given to graduate-level geneticists in order to fund their research presentations in academic conferences.