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Honoring wheat scientists Jesse Dubin and Ron DePauw and the Yaqui Valley Legacy


May 5, 2015

Source: CIMMYT Blog
by Katie Lutz

Award winners pose for photo.
Ron DePauw and Jesse Dubin were presented The Yaqui Award for major contributions to wheat improvement and CIMMYT. Photo: Katie Lutz/CIMMYT

Esteemed wheat scientists Jesse Dubin and Ron DePauw received the Yaqui Award last month for their lifetime achievements in wheat improvement and significant impacts on CIMMYT’s global wheat program (GWP).

Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s GWP, praised Dubin and DePauw’s accomplishments at a celebratory barbecue during the annual GWP Visitor’s Week at the Campo Experimental Norman E. Borlaug (CENEB), CIMMYT’s experimental research center located in the Yaqui Valley outside of Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico.

The ceremony occurred on the evening of what would have been the 101st birthday of Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and father of the Green Revolution who also worked directly with Sonora farmers to transform wheat agriculture, making the Yaqui Valley a major breadbasket for Mexico.

The Yaqui Award is a sculpted wood figure of a dancer of the Yaqui Indian Tribe, who are native to the Valley and famed as farmers and warriors. It is given by the GWP in recognition of special merit in wheat research.

DePauw’s breeding career began at the Kenyan Agriculture Research Institute (now KALRO) as a part of project sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency. From 1978 to 2013, DePauw was a hexaploid spring wheat breeder at the Research Centre in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, followed by two more years as a durum wheat breeder. More than half of all wheat grown in Canada is derived from cultivars developed by DePauw and his team.

“My mission was always to deliver cultivars that farmers would readily adopt. My goal was that the new cultivar would be better than the old and give a sustainable return. When a farmer tells me he prefers my variety, I have achieved my goal,” said DePauw, who first visited CIMMYT in 1969 as a graduate student. He retired just days before travelling to Mexico to take part as an instructor in the GWP’s Basic Wheat Improvement Training course.

Helping to Save Wheat from Deadly Diseases

A plant pathologist by specialty, Dubin retired from CIMMYT in 1999 after 24 years of service, but has since been a regular GWP consultant. Similar to Borlaug, Dubin started his career with a degree in forestry but also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Chile. He was hired to CIMMYT in 1975 by celebrated wheat researcher Glenn Anderson, with direct authorization from Borlaug.

Alongside Sanjaya Rajaram, former GWP director and 2014 World Food Prize laureate, Dubin helped lay the foundation for more durable resistance to wheat rust diseases through the use of multiple, minor-effect genes. He was instrumental in saving Mexican wheat crops from a potentially deadly 1976 leaf rust outbreak. Among a laundry list of accomplishments, Dubin notes some of his most memorable moments as working with young scientists and seeing them become productive researchers in their home countries.

“Being involved in training at CIMMYT has been one of the most satisfying parts of my career. The amount of people I’ve helped foster through this program and to see the outstanding work they have accomplished since leaving CIMMYT shows me what a long-lasting effect the training program has on these young scientists,” said Dubin. “I have lived every day as a trainer; watching the continuous flow of new ideas and people is why I haven’t stopped.”

Currently part of the newly-established Borlaug Training Foundation, Dubin wants to help continue the legacy of training that Borlaug introduced at CIMMYT.

“Training was the cornerstone of the Green Revolution,” he said. “Norm (Borlaug) was a great scientist, but he was a trainer and teacher at heart.”



More news from: CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center)


Website: http://www.cimmyt.org

Published: May 5, 2015



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