Dr. B. Todd Campbell, a research geneticist
at the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Coastal Plains Soil, Water, and
Plant Research Center in Florence, SC, is the recipient of the 2017 Cotton
Genetics Research Award.The announcement was made during the 2018 Beltwide
Cotton Improvement Conference, which convened as part of the National Cotton
Council-coordinated 2018 Beltwide Cotton Conferences. In recognition, Campbell
received a plaque and a monetary award.
Campbell – whose cotton breeding
efforts have focused on cotton genetic resources, climate resiliency, and
germplasm enhancement – led the development and release of 10 high quality
cotton germplasm lines, four randomly-mated cotton populations, and 16 cotton
germplasm lines.One of his nominators, Dr. Jack McCarty, a research agronomist
at the Southeast Area, Crop Science Research Laboratory at Mississippi State
University, said Campbell has produced high quality cotton germplasm, and that
evaluation of his cotton lines under drought conditions on his research plots
are proving invaluable to the development of improved cotton germplasm with
genetic diversity for stress.McCarty noted that Campbell has been
recognized by his peers for his contribution to cotton improvement research and
excellence by positions of responsibility given him – associate editor of Crop Science, editor of the Journal of Plant Registrations, and
a member of the National Cotton Variety Test Committee, to name a few.
Another nominator, Dr. David Stelly, a professor in Texas A&M University’s
Department of Soil & Crop Sciences, said Campbell continues to make unique
and significant contributions to cotton breeding and genetics through his
research. His programs encompass a wide range of conventional,
non-conventional, technological and biotechnological approaches to cotton
genetic research and improvements, and he is highly integrated into the
community through numerous collaborations on a wide range of cotton research
and breeding endeavors.
Stelly said that Campbell also has
taken on exceptionally active roles in scientific organizations – efforts that
provide a lot of subliminal and very positive exposure for cotton breeding and
genetics to the greater scientific community.“Such exposure will hopefully lead
to better recognition and higher regard of cotton breeders and researchers
among the majority of administrators, breeders and researchers, who have little
or no direct knowledge or our community and excellent work that we do,” Stelly
noted.
Campbell received a B.S. in
Biochemistry from North Carolina State University. He earned a M.S. and a Ph.D.
in Agronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he worked as a
graduate research assistant in the university’s Department of Agronomy and
Horticulture. He was a plant breeder at the California Cooperative Rice
Research Foundation in Biggs, CA, from 2002-2004 before moving to the Coastal
Plains Soil, Water, and Plant Research Center in Florence.
He has received multiple awards and
honors. He was given the American Society of Agronomy/Crop Science Society of
America/Soil Science Society of America Early Career Professional Award in 2009
and was the USDA-ARS South Atlantic Area Early Career Scientist of the Year in
2011. He was a named a Fellow of both the American Society of Agronomy and the
Crop Science Society in 2016.The annual cotton Genetics Research
Award was established in 1961 by U.S. commercial cotton breeders to recognize
and encourage basic research in cotton genetics, cytogenetics and breeding. It
is administered by the Joint Cotton Breeding Committee which consists of
representatives of the NCC, the USDA, state experiment stations, Cotton
Incorporated and commercial breeders.
Source: Daily herald,Chicago,USA Monday, 08 January 2018