2026 Anton Lang Memorial Award Winners Recognized

PRL's Amanda Koenig & Rees Rillema Recognized

By Caleb Hess | May 20, 2026 |

Each year, the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, or PRL, recognizes the achievements and contributions of one graduate student and one postdoctoral fellow with Anton Lang Memorial Awards; given to those who embody the research excellence, ideals, dedication and vision of Anton Lang, the founding Director of the PRL.

This year's winners are Amanda Koenig, a postdoctoral researcher in the Hu lab, and Rees Rillema, a graduate student in the Ducat lab. They were recognized on April 20 during the annual Anton Lang Memorial Awards and Seminar.

Offered as a special iteration of the Molecular Plant Science seminar series, the event serves to recognize exceptional talent within the PRL and invites a guest speaker, often a distinguished plant scientist with some connection to the PRL, to speak with MSU's plant science community.

This year's seminar was a homecoming of sorts for Sheng Yang He, a former PRL faculty member and Michigan State University Distinguished Professor who now holds appointments at Duke Univeristy and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

“It is an honor and privilege for me to lead the Anton Lang Award ceremony this year on behalf of the PRL director,” said Jianping Hu, a professor in the PRL who serves as the director of the Molecular Plant Sciences graduate program. “I would like to express my heartfelt congratulations to Rees and Amanda for their outstanding performance; they exemplify the research excellence and dedication of Anton Lang. I would also like to proudly congratulate Dr. Sheng Yang He for his recognition as the 2026 Anton Lang Memorial Lecturer. Sheng Yang's major scientific achievements in plant immunity have established him as a leader in plant science.”

Rees Rillema

Rees Rillema is a graduate student in the Ducat lab, where he studies carboxysomes and carbon fixation in cyanobacteria. Rillema was nominated by Daniel Ducat, who noted Rillema’s aptitude for impactful, cross-cutting research by citing an early success story:

Rillema constructed a project — which later led to a publication in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology — first conceived while he and fellow student Manos Kokarakis were rotating through the Ducat lab.
"Students with the capacity to develop their ideas for projects during a brief rotation, and then more fully develop them into publishable results are rare," Ducat said in his nomination letter.

Rillema has continued to expand his research in the years since, including helping characterize non-canonical carbonic anhydrase enzymes in plants. This work culminated in a paper published in The Plant Journal in 2023; serving as a scientific achievement for Rillema and his collaborators, and an example of cross-disciplinary work across PRL labs. The work necessitated the development of protocols for the new Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry (MIMS) device piloted by Berkley Walker's group.

Rillema has also undertaken the arduous process of developing procedures for the use of LiCOR equipment on algae and cyanobacteria.

"Rees invested significant time to optimize procedures with this new equipment and has used it to evaluate a number of carboxysome mutants in our model cyanobacteria," Ducat explained. "This work is broadly important for the PRL, because it allows for cross-comparison of phenotypes from plants, algae, and cyanobacteria — the capacity of the PRL to do this work is core strength in the eyes of the Department of Energy," he explained.

Man in grey sweater holds a clock — Rees Rillema was selected based on his impressive research and for his involvement in community engagement activities in and around the PRL — including serving as President of the Association of Molecular Plant Science Students (AMPSS).

Rillema's work has seeded another upcoming publication in Plant Physiology, and will be included in the PRL's next grant renewal application as an example of both scientific prowess, but also as an example of the PRL's powerful collaborative environment.

“I am deeply honored to receive the Anton Lang Memorial Award from the PRL," Rillema said. "It is truly humbling to be added to a list of so many talented scientists, some of whom I have been lucky enough to know personally. This recognition would not have been possible without the dedication and guidance of my mentor, Danny Ducat, and the support of the Ducat lab."

About Rees

For the past five and a half years at the PRL, I have researched carbon fixation rates in cyanobacteria and explored the dynamics of carboxysomes. I've also had the privilege of collaborating with fellow PRL members on several projects. During my time at MSU, I have served as an officer in the student organization AMPSS, organized symposiums and retreats, and mentored the next generation of PRL members.

Amanda Koenig

Amanda Koenig is a postdoctoral researcher in the Hu lab, where she explores how peroxisomes traverse the actin scaffolding of cells’ cytoskeletons.

Woman in grey sweater holds a small clock embedded in a plaque. — Amanda Koenig was selcted both because of her novel ideas and scientific productivity and her engagement with the scientific community at MSU and beyond.

“Amanda came to my lab in November 2022; since then, she has performed well above my expectations in research, mentoring, and community service, and playing a leadership role on many fronts. She exemplifies the research excellence and dedication to the science community that this award recognizes,” Ju wrote in her nomination letter.

Koenig’s work sheds light on how plants coordinate key energy-processing organelles and the metabolic processes that power cells; a recent publication in the journal Plant Physiology offers what Hu calls an imperative and “quantitative approach to comprehensively categorize organelle movement, paving the way for investigating organelle dynamics at the molecular level.”

Koenig makes frequent contributions to science at MSU and beyond, and is recognized for her incisive nature in the lab — Hu describes her as being "very generous with her time, teaching the students lab techniques as well as the critical thinking process." Koenig's contributions extend beyond MSU, however: she's been an invited speaker at the meetings of both the American Society of Plant Biologists and the Plant Cell Atlas, and her extensive work with collaborators on recent and upcoming papers have yielded publications in high-impact journals, including Nature Communications and the Journal of Cell Science.

But for Koenig, work as a scientist doesn't stop when a paper is published: she was President of, and now serves as a Board Member for, Graduate Women in Science, has been involved in science policy advising at professional societies, and helped organize a visit by Michigan congressional staffers to the PRL. She also organized the National Plant Lipid Gordon Seminar and is now serving on the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the American Society of Plant Biologists.

"I am beyond grateful to be a part of this team of motivated and enthusiastic scientists at the PRL, and I am so honored to receive the Anton Lang Memorial Award," Koenig siad. "I learn so much from my fellow postdocs and the PRL graduate students, and they make me a better scientist every day. I'm especially thankful for my advisor, Dr. Jianping Hu, who has continuously been a supportive mentor and resolute guide in my research."

About Amanda

I earned my PhD in both Genetics and Molecular Plant Sciences in 2022, during which I studied long-distance lipid signaling with Dr. Susanne Hoffmann-Benning. I joined the PRL in November of 2022 in Dr. Jianping Hu's lab and now work on peroxisome-specific actomyosin-mediated motility mechanisms, especially as they relate to photorespiration. Throughout my scientific career, I have been active in science policy advocacy initiatives. I've served in leadership with the non-profit Graduate Women in Science for nearly 10 years, and I am now on their Board of Directors. I also serve on the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee with the American Society of Plant Biologists.

Sheng Yang He

Sheng Yang He joined Michigan State University in 1995, during which time he made exceptional strides in understanding the molecular mechanisms of plant immunity and bacterial susceptibility. He was appointed as a University Distinguished Professor in 2013, and was elected into the National Academy of Sciences in 2015.

A man with glasses and medium length dark hair smiles and holds an open hand outward, gesturing to the camera. — Sheng Yang He is a renowned microbiologist who studies bacterial susceptibility in plants. He was a member of the PRL from 1995-2018.

He's presentation, "Plant-pathogen interactions in a warming climate" offered insights into the evolving directions of research in the He Lab and underscored the impact of He's time in the PRL — as he emphasized the value of the PRL as a training ground for next-generation scientists: those who think not only creatively, but collaboratively as well.

The Anton Lang Memorial Fund was established to honor Lang, who passed away in 1996. Proceeds from the fund go towards annually supporting the Anton Lang Memorial Lecture and recognizing a graduate student and a postdoctoral research associate who exemplify the research excellence, ideas, dedication and vision of Anton Lang.