Originally from the Philippines, Michael Purugganan started his career as a journalist and worked as a news stringer for Time, Newsweek and the Associated Press. He is currently the Silver Professor of Biology and the former Dean of Science at New York University. He is a leading authority on plant molecular evolution and genomics. His work has focused on the study of domestication and evolution of crop species. He has served on the board of trustees of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Biological Sciences Advisory Committee for the US National Science Foundation. In 2018, he was appointed as co-chair of the Carnegie Mellon University Presidential Advisory Board on Science, and in 2021 became the frist Scientist-in-Residence at the Asian Institute of Management. In 2024, he was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences.