CARY, N.C. — January 23, 2019 — Dr. David M. Stelly of Texas A&M University was selected as the recipient of the 2018 Cotton Biotechnology Award for his contributions known all over the world covering cytogenetics, chromosome substitution lines, and the widely used 63K SNP Chip genotyping tool. The award announcement was made by Dr. Don Jones of Cotton Incorporated at the Plant & Animal Genome Conference in San Diego.
Commenting on the research efforts of Dr. Stelly, Dr. Jonathan Wendel of Iowa State University lauded his history of accomplishments: “His training was in classical plant cytogenetics, but over the years he has expanded into many different aspects of plant genomics, including comparative mapping, the development of new tools for germplasm characterization, the creation and genomic evaluation of chromosome substitution lines, and genome sequencing. Dr. Stelly has maintained a record of significant publication throughout his career, with more than 150 contributions to the scientific literature including many in high impact journals.”
Similar accolades came from Dr. Josh Udall, soon to be Research Leader at USDA-ARS in College Station, Texas and recipient of the award in 2014. “A consistent professional attribute that obvious to the cotton research community has been Dr. Stelly’s ability to work with others and establish collaborative research. These community building efforts include research projects in chromosome substitution lines, SNP markers, and genome sequencing to name a few. In each case, Dr. Stelly provided leadership and a collaborative vision that was always larger than his own professional aspirations”.
The Cotton Biotechnology Award, endowed by a gift from Dr. Norma Trolinder in 2000, has been presented on six previous occasions. The recipient receives a monetary award and a plaque. It is presented to a scientist or group of scientists for outstanding biotechnology research in cotton and is administered by the Agricultural and Environmental Research Department at Cotton Incorporated.
Cotton Incorporated, funded by U.S. growers of upland cotton and importers of cotton and cotton textile products, is the research and marketing company representing upland cotton. The program is designed and operated to improve the demand for and profitability of cotton.
Posted January 24, 2019
Source: Cotton Incorporated
