Joshua Kaste recognized with the 2025 Kende Award
Joshua Kaste has been named the 2025 recipient of the Kende Award, recognizing the best doctoral dissertation in plant sciences at Michigan State University over the past two years.
Presented annually by the MSU-Department of Energy Plant Research Laboratory, or PRL, the award is named for Hans Kende, a University Distinguished Professor who spent four decades at the PRL and served as its director from 1985 to 1988.
Along with a monetary prize, Kaste was invited to deliver a research seminar highlighting his postdoctoral work on December 8, 2025.
“I am truly delighted to have received this award,” Kaste said. “Receiving this recognition from my colleagues at MSU has really inspired and reassured me that my contributions to plant science are valued by the community.”
Kaste received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from MSU in 2024. He worked in Yair Shachar-Hill’s lab, researching various aspects of the metabolism of photosynthetic organisms using computational modeling techniques.
“Joshua’s incisive and creative mind, combined with his dedication, has made him a prolific researcher with an impressive breadth,” said Shachar-Hill, professor of Plant Biology. “That includes an especially important talent for applying state-of-the-art statistics to the analysis of metabolic and transport flows.”
Kaste’s dissertation research centered on computational modeling of the fluxes through plant central metabolism. It included computational modeling of microbial metabolism and plant gene expression. He has also developed online tools to help teach metabolic modeling and used them to teach a workshop alongside Shachar-Hill for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.
During his time at MSU, Kaste published nine peer-reviewed papers, with seven as first or co-first author. He was awarded fellowships from both the NSF-IMPACTS program in Computational Plant Biology and the Plant Biology for Health and Sustainability program. He was awarded the Biochemistry & Molecular Biology departmental Outstanding Graduate Student Award and the Anton Lang Research Excellence Award in April 2024.
Now, Kaste is a postdoctoral researcher in Megan Matthews’ group at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he continues to make important contributions to the analysis of metabolic fluxes in plant systems.
“Joshua’s work illustrates the curiosity, rigor, and collaborative spirit that defines the PRL and that Hans Kende so deeply exemplified,” said Federica Brandizzi, director of the PRL. "His innovative research and commitment to advancing both science and community make him an outstanding recipient of this award. I look forward with excitement to the contributions he will continue to bring to plant science.”
