RT Vol. 5, No. 3 People
PEOPLERice genetics pioneer passes awayOver the years, Dr. Chang had shared his expertise in genetic conservation with national agricultural research centers in China and India as they established gene banks for other crop species. A native of Shanghai, China, Dr. Chang completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Nanking and earned masters and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University and the University of Minnesota, respectively. He was a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy, th
Content
PEOPLE
Rice genetics pioneer passes away
Over the years, Dr. Chang had shared his expertise in genetic conservation with national agricultural research centers in China and India as they established gene banks for other crop species. A native of Shanghai, China, Dr. Chang completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Nanking and earned masters and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University and the University of Minnesota, respectively. He was a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy, the Institute of Biology of the UK, the Crop Science Society of the Philippines, and the Crop Science Society of America. Among his many awards were the 1988 Rank Prize for Nutrition and the 1999 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.
Keeping up with IRRI staff
Z
JESSE VICTOLERO
T
e-Tzu (T.T.) Chang, 79, passed away in Taiwan on 24 March 2006. Dr. Chang, IRRI’s principal geneticist for more than 30 years and head of the International Rice Germplasm Center when he retired in December 1991, was considered a world authority on rice genetics and conservation. His research on the evolution and variation of rice led to major advances in plant breeding, productivity, and disease resistance with a profound impact on agricultural productivity throughout much of Asia, Africa, and South America. Dr. Chang introduced Dee-geo-woogen, a Chinese dwarf rice, to IRRI’s breeding program in 1962. That led to the development of the first high-yielding semidwarf rice varieties. IR8, the first such variety to be widely grown in the tropics, was released late in 1966. It was followed by a succession of improved, early-maturing varieties with genetic resistance to many of the major insect pests and diseases of rice. Faced with the peril of losing genetic resources that hold the key to the future development of newer and better rice crops, Dr. Chang perceived the danger and put great effort into saving unimproved varieties and their wild relatives. He mobilized international and multiagency resources in 14 Asian nations and several African nations to undertake massive field collections of nearly 40,000 specimens, many on the brink of extinction. This effort made IRRI’s rice gene bank holdings the largest collection in the world for a single crop plant. Desirable genes from this invaluable resource continue to sustain advances in global rice production.
ahirul Islam, international research fellow, has joined IRRI’s Social Sciences Division (SSD) to coordinate the IRRI-International Fund for Agricultural Development project on accelerating technologies and adoption to improve livelihoods on the rainfed Indo-Gangetic Plains at seven sites in India and Bangladesh. Hari Gurung also joined SSD as an international research fellow. Yuichiro Furukawa, Ruben Lampayan, and Rachid Serraj joined the Crop and Environmental Sciences (CES) Division as a project scientist, postdoctoral fellow, and senior crop physiologist, respectively. Inez Slamet-Loedin joined the Golden Rice Network as a shuttle scientist responsible for developing the non-eventspecific regulatory dossier for Golden Rice SGR2, while Florencia Palis is a new postdoctoral fellow with the CES Division responsible for coordinating projects under the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC), among others. Trina Mendoza also joined IRRC as an associate in communication and extension.
Appointed heads of Organizational Units as part of IRRI’s new strategic plan are David Mackill, Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology (PBGB) Division, including current PBGB staff and the plant pathology research groups of the former Entomology and Plant Pathology Division (EPPD); T.P. Tuong, CES, including staff of the former Crop, Soil, and Water Sciences Division and the entomology and ecology research groups of the former EPPD; Mahabub Hossain, SSD, including current staff and units of SSD; Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton, the T.T. Chang Genetic Resources Center (GRC), including current staff of GRC; Graham McLaren, the IRRI-CIMMYT Crop Research Informatics Laboratory (CRIL), including current staff of the former Biometrics and Bioinformatics Unit; and Melissa Fitzgerald, the Grain Quality, Nutrition, and Postharvest Center, including current staff of the former Grain Quality and Nutrition Research Center and the agricultural engineering and post harvest research groups of the former Agricultural Engineering Unit. drought in Asia delivers heartbreak and rips communities apart among the rural poor, but also how promising new research is helping rice farmers avoid devastation. Anthropologist Florencia Palis of IRRI’s Social Sciences Division received the Nationally Recruited Staff Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement at the recent Board of Trustees meeting at the institute’s Philippine headquarters. Dr. Palis was chosen for her independent ethnographic research that encompassed many community settings and IRRI projects, including her research for the advancement of knowledge. Yuan Longping, director general of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center, in April joined the elite U.S. National Academy of Sciences as a foreign associate, one of the highest honors in American science and engineering. Professor Longping, 76, is known as the “Father of Hybrid Rice” for his contribution in developing high-yield rice in China. 9
Achievements
A
dam Barclay, Rice Today editor, won a Gold Award (1st place) in the Writing for Magazines Category for the article, Dreams beyond drought that appeared on pages 14-21 of Vol. 4, No. 2 of Rice Today. The award was presented by the Association for Communications Excellence (ACE) during its annual meeting in Quebec City, Canada, 2-6 June 2006. ACE is an international organization of communicators and information technologists that develops the professional skills of its members to extend knowledge about agriculture, natural resources and life and human sciences to people worldwide. The article explored how
Rice Today July-September 2006
Rice genetics pioneer passes away
Over the years, Dr. Chang had shared his expertise in genetic conservation with national agricultural research centers in China and India as they established gene banks for other crop species. A native of Shanghai, China, Dr. Chang completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Nanking and earned masters and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University and the University of Minnesota, respectively. He was a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy, the Institute of Biology of the UK, the Crop Science Society of the Philippines, and the Crop Science Society of America. Among his many awards were the 1988 Rank Prize for Nutrition and the 1999 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.
Keeping up with IRRI staff
Z
JESSE VICTOLERO
T
e-Tzu (T.T.) Chang, 79, passed away in Taiwan on 24 March 2006. Dr. Chang, IRRI’s principal geneticist for more than 30 years and head of the International Rice Germplasm Center when he retired in December 1991, was considered a world authority on rice genetics and conservation. His research on the evolution and variation of rice led to major advances in plant breeding, productivity, and disease resistance with a profound impact on agricultural productivity throughout much of Asia, Africa, and South America. Dr. Chang introduced Dee-geo-woogen, a Chinese dwarf rice, to IRRI’s breeding program in 1962. That led to the development of the first high-yielding semidwarf rice varieties. IR8, the first such variety to be widely grown in the tropics, was released late in 1966. It was followed by a succession of improved, early-maturing varieties with genetic resistance to many of the major insect pests and diseases of rice. Faced with the peril of losing genetic resources that hold the key to the future development of newer and better rice crops, Dr. Chang perceived the danger and put great effort into saving unimproved varieties and their wild relatives. He mobilized international and multiagency resources in 14 Asian nations and several African nations to undertake massive field collections of nearly 40,000 specimens, many on the brink of extinction. This effort made IRRI’s rice gene bank holdings the largest collection in the world for a single crop plant. Desirable genes from this invaluable resource continue to sustain advances in global rice production.
ahirul Islam, international research fellow, has joined IRRI’s Social Sciences Division (SSD) to coordinate the IRRI-International Fund for Agricultural Development project on accelerating technologies and adoption to improve livelihoods on the rainfed Indo-Gangetic Plains at seven sites in India and Bangladesh. Hari Gurung also joined SSD as an international research fellow. Yuichiro Furukawa, Ruben Lampayan, and Rachid Serraj joined the Crop and Environmental Sciences (CES) Division as a project scientist, postdoctoral fellow, and senior crop physiologist, respectively. Inez Slamet-Loedin joined the Golden Rice Network as a shuttle scientist responsible for developing the non-eventspecific regulatory dossier for Golden Rice SGR2, while Florencia Palis is a new postdoctoral fellow with the CES Division responsible for coordinating projects under the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC), among others. Trina Mendoza also joined IRRC as an associate in communication and extension.
Appointed heads of Organizational Units as part of IRRI’s new strategic plan are David Mackill, Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology (PBGB) Division, including current PBGB staff and the plant pathology research groups of the former Entomology and Plant Pathology Division (EPPD); T.P. Tuong, CES, including staff of the former Crop, Soil, and Water Sciences Division and the entomology and ecology research groups of the former EPPD; Mahabub Hossain, SSD, including current staff and units of SSD; Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton, the T.T. Chang Genetic Resources Center (GRC), including current staff of GRC; Graham McLaren, the IRRI-CIMMYT Crop Research Informatics Laboratory (CRIL), including current staff of the former Biometrics and Bioinformatics Unit; and Melissa Fitzgerald, the Grain Quality, Nutrition, and Postharvest Center, including current staff of the former Grain Quality and Nutrition Research Center and the agricultural engineering and post harvest research groups of the former Agricultural Engineering Unit. drought in Asia delivers heartbreak and rips communities apart among the rural poor, but also how promising new research is helping rice farmers avoid devastation. Anthropologist Florencia Palis of IRRI’s Social Sciences Division received the Nationally Recruited Staff Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement at the recent Board of Trustees meeting at the institute’s Philippine headquarters. Dr. Palis was chosen for her independent ethnographic research that encompassed many community settings and IRRI projects, including her research for the advancement of knowledge. Yuan Longping, director general of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center, in April joined the elite U.S. National Academy of Sciences as a foreign associate, one of the highest honors in American science and engineering. Professor Longping, 76, is known as the “Father of Hybrid Rice” for his contribution in developing high-yield rice in China. 9
Achievements
A
dam Barclay, Rice Today editor, won a Gold Award (1st place) in the Writing for Magazines Category for the article, Dreams beyond drought that appeared on pages 14-21 of Vol. 4, No. 2 of Rice Today. The award was presented by the Association for Communications Excellence (ACE) during its annual meeting in Quebec City, Canada, 2-6 June 2006. ACE is an international organization of communicators and information technologists that develops the professional skills of its members to extend knowledge about agriculture, natural resources and life and human sciences to people worldwide. The article explored how
Rice Today July-September 2006
