{"id":21302,"date":"2013-12-02T10:51:53","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T20:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=21302"},"modified":"2021-11-09T15:21:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T01:21:15","slug":"plant-breeder-brewbaker-makes-1-million-gift-to-support-future-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2013\/12\/02\/plant-breeder-brewbaker-makes-1-million-gift-to-support-future-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Plant breeder Brewbaker makes $1 million gift to support future work"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Top photo: CTAHR<\/abbr> Dean Maria Gallo presents CSSA Presidential Award to James L. Brewbaker. Bottom photo: James L. Brewbaker at College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources’ Waimanalo Research Station.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Veteran University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at Mānoa<\/a> plant breeder and corn expert James L. Brewbaker<\/strong> has established an endowed fellowship with outright and estate gifts totaling $1 million. The James L. Brewbaker endowed fellowship will assist full-time graduate students who are studying plant breeding in the Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences<\/a> at the 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources<\/a> (CTAHR<\/abbr>). <\/p>\n

“Since the dawn of agriculture, humans have crossed plant varieties to obtain desirable traits and improve the quality and quantity of harvest. Few have done it as successfully as Dr<\/abbr>. Brewbaker,” said Maria Gallo<\/strong>, CTAHR<\/abbr> dean and director. “During a career spanning seven decades, he has made remarkable contributions to agriculture in Hawaiʻi<\/span> and around the world through his own research and through the work of the dozens of agronomists and foresters he has trained. In establishing a fellowship program to support future graduate students, he ensures that his legacy will continue for generations to come.”<\/p>\n

Brewbaker expresses the opinion that plant breeding will be even more important in the century to come than it has since the discovery a century ago of Mendel’s research. He is convinced that the tropical setting and global perspective of University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> will be at the center of such research and teaching, to which end his gift can hopefully contribute. <\/p>\n

“Liberty Hyde Bailey, with great foresight, established Cornell’s Department of Plant Breeding more than a century ago, in 1907. Graduating there in 1952, I\u2019ve had the extraordinary pleasure of breeding plants ever since. I\u2019ve seen it contribute immensely to the health of people and the world\u2019s environment. But the two billion people this world held when I was born in ’26 have sadly grown to more than seven billion, of whom one billion go to bed hungry,” said Brewbaker. “My gift simply underscores my faith that plant breeding can, and indeed will have to contribute even more than it has in the past. No better place than University of Hawaiʻi<\/span>.”<\/p>\n

After 52 years at 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Mānoa, Brewbaker is still very involved in plant breeding. He plants and harvests almost weekly while keeping copious notes.<\/p>\n

糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Mānoa Chancellor Tom Apple concluded, “Gifts from our faculty are especially meaningful and we are most grateful to Dr<\/abbr>. Brewbaker for building on his impressive educational legacy with his very generous gifts. Through this endowed fellowship, his lifelong dedication to studying plant breeding will live on through the work of our future researchers.”<\/p>\n

More on Brewbaker<\/h2>\n

A second-generation plant breeder, Brewbaker grew up learning about sugarbeet breeding from his father. He completed his PhD<\/abbr> in 1952 with Sandy Atwood on clover genetics in Cornell’s Department of Plant Breeding and Biometry. He then completed his post-doctoral work in Sweden and the Philippines, and worked for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission before joining the 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> faculty. In 1961 he joined CTAHR<\/abbr> at the invitation of horticulture department chair and vegetable breeder Jim Gilbert<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

At CTAHR<\/abbr>, he created Hawaiʻi<\/span> Foundation Seeds<\/a> that manages collections of parent seed stocks –overseeing their collection, evaluation, purification, and propagation and providing seed samples and education to the community. Brewbaker was also instrumental in founding the Hawaiʻi<\/span> Crop Improvement Association<\/a> (HCIA<\/abbr>), following his corn research in the 1960’s.<\/p>\n

In recognition of his trailblazing work, he has won numerous awards, including the recent Crop Science Society of America Presidential Award<\/a>, and accolades for his work from every major plant breeding organization. A prolific writer, he is working on his 287th publication.<\/p>\n

—A 糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Mānoa news release<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> Mānoa plant breeder James L. Brewbaker establishes $1 million endowed fellowship to assist CTAHR<\/abbr> graduate students. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[212,432,9],"class_list":["post-21302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-tropical-plant-and-soil-sciences","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21302"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151583,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21302\/revisions\/151583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}