In Memoriam: Meng Chen

May 21, 1970 – September 10, 2026

It is with profound sadness that we mourn the sudden and unexpected passing of our colleague and friend, Professor Meng Chen, on September 10, 2026. Meng was attending the international EMBO Workshop on Plant Photobiology in Les Diablerets, Switzerland. The meeting brought together leading scientists working on plant light signaling and environmental responses and focused on questions that were at the center of Meng's own research, including how photoreceptors integrate light, temperature, metabolism, photosynthesis, and other environmental signals. While on a hike in the Swiss Alps with other conference participants, Meng collapsed and died unexpectedly. The suddenness of his death is difficult to comprehend. Meng was in the midst of one of the most creative and productive periods of his scientific career. His loss is devastating to his family, friends, students and colleagues and leaves a major gap in the international plant science community. Meng was born on May 21, 1970, in China. He received his graduate training at Iowa State University, earning his Ph.D. through the Interdepartmental Plant Physiology Program. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at the Salk Institute under the guidance of the late Joanne Chory, a pioneering plant biologist whose work transformed our understanding of plant light signaling and whose many trainees became leading scientists in plant biology. Meng joined thefaculty of Duke University in 2008 and moved to the University of California, Riverside in 2015, where he became a Professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences. Shortly after hisarrival at UCR, he received the prestigious UC Regents Faculty Development Award. Over the course of his career, Meng became an internationally recognized leader in plant photobiology, particularly in understanding how plants perceive and respond to light and temperature through phytochrome signaling. Among his most influential contributions was his pioneering work on photobodies, the subnuclear structures associated with phytochrome signaling. His research helped establish photobodies as an important framework for understanding how the spatial organization of signaling components within the nucleus controls plant responses to the environment. More recently, his laboratory uncovered how phytochrome B photobodies regulate PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTORS (PIFs) through nuclear phase separation and demonstrated that individual photobodies form at specific nuclear locations and differ in their sensitivity to temperature. These discoveries have implications extending beyond plant photobiology to fundamental questions concerning the spatial organization of cellular signaling and gene regulation. His laboratory also made important discoveries concerning nuclear-to-plastid signaling and the regulation of chloroplast development.

The quality and impact of Meng's scientific work were exceptional. His research was supported continuously by major federal grants, including long-term funding from the National Science Foundation as well as the National Institutes of Health, an especially notable accomplishment for a plant biologist. His work appeared consistently in leading journals including Cell, Genes &Development, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Communications, Plant Physiology, and Trends in Plant Science. External colleagues repeatedly described it as pioneering and transformative and recognized Meng as a global leader in plant photobiology. What makes Meng's death especially painful scientifically is the extraordinary trajectory his work had taken in recent years. His research program was quickly accelerating. Between 2024 and 2026 alone, his group published a series of seminal studies addressing photobody organization, phytochrome B signaling, chloroplast biogenesis, thermomorphogenesis, and temperature responses. In June 2026, only three months before his death, he published both a new Nature Communications study on how phytochrome B controls photobody number and a Plant Physiology article reflecting on 25 years of photobody research. His scientific record makes clear that this was not a career approaching its culmination, but one that was still ascending rapidly. UCR had recently recognized his accomplishments through his advancement to Step VI within the Full Professor rank, marking his progression into the senior ranks of the professoriate. At UCR, Meng built a large, highly active and intellectually vibrant research program. Over the years, he trained numerous postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, research scientists, specialists and undergraduate researchers. His commitment to training extended even to local high school students, whom he welcomed into his laboratory to pursue science-fair projects, several of which received awards. His influence as a mentor extended far beyond his own research group. Graduate students from several UCR programs regularly sought his expertise for their advisory, qualifying-examination, thesis, and dissertation committees. Several of his former trainees have gone on to successful careers and leading positions in academia and industry.

Meng set exceptionally high scientific standards for himself and passed these standards on to the scientists he trained. Yet he combined these expectations with a remarkable ability to inspire others to achieve their best. Colleagues remember him as a fine intellectual who could challenge people scientifically while motivating them to pursue difficult questions with rigor and creativity. The success of the many scientists he trained will remain an important part of his scientific legacy. Meng's importance to UCR, however, cannot be captured by his research accomplishments alone. He was a remarkably charismatic and warm person; friendly, cheerful, cordial and optimistic. His enthusiasm for science was infectious. Conversations with Meng were often energetic and intellectually stimulating, but also marked by warmth, humor and genuine interest in the people around him. These qualities made him not only an influential scientist but also a deeply valued colleague.

He brought these same qualities to the classroom. In recent years, Meng taught introductory molecular biology and cell biology to undergraduate and graduate students. Students repeatedly praised his enthusiasm for the subjects he taught, the depth of his knowledge, his ability to bring clarity to difficult concepts, and his kind and personable manner. His teaching and extensive mentoring reflected the same combination of intellectual rigor and generosity that characterized his research.

Meng was also an exceptionally engaged university citizen. He served the UCR Academic Senate through the Committee on Committees, the Graduate Council, and the Committee on Planning and Budget, contributed to college-level activities including the CNAS Space Committee, and served the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences through academic planning, faculty advancement, recruitment, and other responsibilities. His willingness to contribute his time and judgment strengthened the department, CNAS, and UCR as a whole. His service extended equally strongly to the international scientific community. Meng served as a member on several professional societies, such as the American Society of Plant Biologists, the Genetics Society of America, the American Society of Cell Biology and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He was frequently invited to speak at international conferences and universities, including as a plenary speaker. He served for five years as an editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, was a member of Faculty Opinions, reviewed extensively for leading scientific journals, and devoted substantial effort to the evaluation of research proposals, particularly through the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, where he also assumed panel leadership responsibilities. The extraordinary demand for his scientific judgment reflected the respect he commanded throughout the international plant biology community. His death leaves a gap that will be extraordinarily difficult to fill. Plant photobiology has lost one of its leading thinkers at a time when his ideas and research were advancing rapidly. UCR has lost a highly accomplished scientist, an inspiring mentor and teacher, an engaged university citizen, and a colleague whose personality and presence contributed enormously to the intellectual and personal life of our department. His absence will be felt throughout the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, CNAS, UCR, and far beyond.

The circumstances of his final days make the loss particularly poignant. Meng died while attending an international meeting devoted to the very scientific field he had helped shape. He was surrounded by members of the scientific community in which he had made such a lasting mark,while continuing to engage with the questions that had driven much of his professional life. Meng leaves behind an enduring scientific legacy. His discoveries will continue to influence plant photobiology, and the many scientists he trained and inspired will carry his intellectual influence into future generations. But the work that remained ahead of him, and the discoveries he would undoubtedly have made, represent an immeasurable loss.

Above all, our thoughts are with his family. Meng is survived by his wife and his son to whom we extend our deepest sympathy. We will remember Meng with great respect, gratitude and affection.Further information regarding memorial arrangements will be shared as it becomes available.