ICAC names researcher of the year
The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) has named Freddie Bourland as its Cotton Researcher of the Year 2010.
Each year the committee picks a cotton researcher and gives them a certificate of recognition, a shield and an honorarium of $1,000. This time round, 11 candidates from eight countries across five continents applied for or were nominated for the award.
Dr Bourland took a masters in plant breeding at the University of Arkansas in 1974 and a PhD in genetics at the Texas A&M University in 1978. He worked for the Mississippi State University from 1978 to 1988, going on to join the University of Arkansas in 1988, where he is now a university professor.
His programme has released more than 70 cotton germplasm lines and cultivars. One cultivar now being released reportedly combines exceptional fibre quality with impressive yield and host plant resistance traits. He has led the development of a modified plant mapping programme (OTMAP), a programme for summarising test data over multiple states (COTVAR), and an index of cotton fibre quality (Q-score). He was also co-leader of a research team that developed COTMAN, a cotton management system.
His other primary research areas have included state cotton variety tests in the USA, evaluating and determining inheritance of several seed and seedling vigour parameters, and developing and employing selection criteria that may be used to enhance host plant resistance and to improve production efficiency via basic yield components.
Prior to being named Center Director of the University of Arkansas Northeast Research and Extension Center in 1997, he regularly taught an undergraduate course covering principles of cotton production and taught graduate-level genetics courses. He has directed the research of 26 graduate students and has served on more than 60 graduate student committees. He has also authored or co-authored 71 publications, more than 265 abstracts and 23 book chapters.
