Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

INSIDE IOWA STATE
February 15, 2002

Investing in People
Pioneer endows maize breeding chair

Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. has made a gift to endow a faculty chair in corn breeding in the College of Agriculture. The Pioneer Hi-Bred International Endowed Chair in Maize Breeding will enable the college to recruit a world-class faculty member to lead the university's maize breeding program. The chair holder also is likely to play a significant role in, or hold the position of director of the Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding in the Plant Sciences Institute.

The gift is part of Iowa State's Investing in People initiative, a two-year effort to raise private funds for undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships and faculty support.

The holder of the Pioneer maize breeding chair will have experience in multidisciplinary and field-oriented research and the ability to develop germplasm for regional agricultural systems. He or she will lead a research program that emphasizes quantitative and population genetics, selection theory and breeding methodology.

Iowa State's maize breeding program was initiated by Merrill Jenkins in 1922 and came to prominence under George Sprague, considered one of the fathers of modern maize breeding. In 1959, Arnel Hallauer succeeded Sprague in directing ISU's maize breeding program. Hallauer, who recently retired, was part of a team of USDA and Iowa State scientists who developed the B73 line of hybrid corn, one of six lines that are the basis for much of the seed-parent lines of corn used in the United States and in temperate regions worldwide.