December 10, 2001
AMES, Iowa — For his international contributions to corn breeding over the past 43 years, Iowa State University researcher Arnel Hallauer has received the 2001 Verdant Partners Crop Genetics Award.
The award was presented to Hallauer during the American Seed Trade Association's mid-winter meeting in Chicago, Dec. 5-7. A $10,000 agricultural scholarship in Hallauer's name has been donated to Iowa State's corn breeding program.
Hallauer is a distinguished professor of agronomy, a member of the National Academy of Science and a member of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service's Science Hall of Fame. He is director of the Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding, one of nine centers in ISU's Plant Sciences Institute. Hallauer plans to retire at the end of December.
Hallauer has influenced plant breeders around the world through his teachings, publications and corn-breeding accomplishments. His book, Quantitative Genetics in Maize Breeding, is considered a standard textbook for corn breeders.
The judges who selected Hallauer include Nobel Prize laureate Norman Borlaug; Ray Goldberg, Moffett Professor of Agriculture and Business (emeritus), Harvard Business School; and Owen Newlin, retired senior vice president and director, Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc.
This is the second year the award has been given. It was established by Verdant Partners, an international crop genetics investment banking and consulting group with offices in California, Illinois and Wisconsin.