Shauna Somerville

Shauna Christine Somerville (née Phimester) is a Canadian-American biological scientist. She is a professor of plant and microbial biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Somerville is known as a pioneer of Arabidopsis thaliana research alongside her husband Chris.

Early life and education Somerville was born to parents Alexander Laird and Edna Phimester in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She attended Viscount Bennett High School. Following high school, Somerville enrolled at the University of Alberta for her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees. While completing her master's degree, Somerville received a Canadian Wheat Board fellowship for the 1976-77 academic year. After graduating in 1978, Somerville and her husband Chris borrowed money and rented a flat in Paris. While there, the two began researching new tools in molecular genetics to enhance the productivity of crop plants. They chose to study a plant species called Arabidopsis thaliana after discovering George Rédei's research.

The Somervilles returned to the University of Alberta but received little encouragement to continue their study of Arabidopsis thaliana. Rédei sent the pair Arabidopsis seeds, which they used to dissect the main pathway of photorespiration. They then moved to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and studied under Bill Ogren as PhD and postdoctoral students. However, she was encouraged to work on diseases of cereals instead of Arabidopsis. Following her promotion to associate professor and the granting of tenure, Somerville returned to working with Arabidopsis. The Somervilles left MSU in December 1993 to join the Plant Biology Department of the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University. However, Chris' concerns about climate change led to them moving to the University of California, Berkeley in 2008.

Following their retirement, the pair moved to Hawaii and began growing cacao.