USA
June 10, 2013
Dr. Roger Boerma, Executive Director of Georgia Seed Development, was honored with the 2013 NAPB Plant Breeding Impact Award during their annual meeting in Tampa, FL. This annual award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to mankind through the development of new cultivars of crops and/or technology development that resulted in a measurable impact on crop production. The award also recognizes accomplishments in teaching and collaboration. The presentation was made during the NAPB annual meeting held June 2-5 in Tampa, FL. Roger has developed 25 soybean cultivars and has been a leader in developing organizations that will ensure the training of future generations of plant breeders. He is a nationally recognized soybean geneticist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Georgia.
Dr. Roger Boerma (right) receiving the 2013 NAPB Plant Breeding Impact Award from Dr. Allen Van Deynze.
Dr. Seth Murray, Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University, received the 2013 NAPB Early Career Award. This award recognizes a young scientist who has established evidence of impacting the science of plant breeding, and who received their Ph.D. within 10 years of the award. Seth is a member of the Faculty of Professional Program in Biotechnology and the Faculty of Genetics at Texas A&M. Seth has released three germplasm lines of maize with improved aflatoxin resistance and yield potential in Texas; mapped a QTL for aflatoxin resistance in maize; established that many QTLs for aflatoxin resistance were likely a result of pleitropy with other traits (e.g., flowering time) by co-localization; and identified novel alleles in two maize lipoxygenase genes. He teaches an advanced class in Quantitative Genetics in Plant Breeding, the final class in a series of plant breeding classes for PhD students. In five years, he has mentored five M.S. students and four Ph.D. students to completion.
Dr. Allen Van Deynze (right) presents the 2013 NAPB Early Career Award to Dr. Seth Murray.
Dr. Johnie Jenkins, Research Geneticist with the USDA-ARS in Starkville, MS, was honored with the 2013 NAPB Lifetime Achievement Award. Johnie joined ARS in 1961 and has made and continues to make significant contributions to the science of plant breeding. Dr. Jenkins has been recognized in many other venues during his career, including induction into the USDA Hall of Fame in 2007. Johnie has been a leader in developing interdisciplinary teams to research host plant resistance in cotton, an effort that has brought about reduction of damage by several insect pests and nematodes. He pioneered the understanding of the effects of chemical differences among cotton strains on the variability of damage done by pests and performed seminal work on cotton fruiting, retention, and yield, developing the technique of "plant mapping" that is used throughout the industry today. Dr. Jenkins’ research has benefited the global cotton community through his mentoring of 71 graduate students from 12 countries.
Dr. Johnie Jenkins (right) receiving the 2013 NAPB Lifetime Achievement Award from Dr. Allen Van Deynze.
The Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee serves as a forum regarding issues and opportunities of national and global importance to the public and private sectors of the U.S. national plant breeding effort.
The National Association of Plant Breeders was begun as an initiative of the Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee and is the advocacy group that represents plant breeders in federal, state, commercial, and non-government organizations.
Topics
Species
