The Carnegie Institution, a private, nonprofit organization engaged in basic research and advanced education in biology, astronomy, and the earth sciences, was founded and endowed by Andrew Carnegie in 1902 and incorporated by an act of Congress in 1904. Andrew Carnegie conceived the Institution's purpose "to encourage, in the broadest and most liberal manner, investigation, research, and discovery, and the application of knowledge to the improvement of mankind."

From its earliest years, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering research organization, devoted to fields of inquiry that its trustees and staff consider among the most significant in the development of science and scholarship. The Institution is supported by funds from the endowment, which are used primarily to support investigations at its own research departments. In addition, the research departments receive financial support from grants and gifts awarded by individuals and public and private institutions.

The Department of Plant Biology engages in basic research on the mechanisms involved in the growth and development of plants and algae. The Department of Plant Biology is co-located with the Carnegie Department of Global Ecology on a seven-acre site on the campus of Stanford University. Many of the Carnegie staff scientists also have academic appointments at Stanford University and teach both graduate and undergraduate courses. Carnegie staff members also act as thesis advisors to Stanford graduate students who pursue thesis research in the Carnegie laboratories. At present there are twelve faculty members and approximately 14 Ph.D. students, 33 postdoctoral fellows and 20 research associates and technicians, many of whom have received a Ph.D.