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Venkatesan Sundaresan awarded 2024 Wolf Prize in Agriculture
Sundaresan holds an M.Sc. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology and is the seventh UC Davis professor to receive the Wolf Prize in Agriculture
Venkatesan Sundaresan / Image- UC Davis
Indian American plant biologist, Venkatesan Sundaresan, has been awarded the 2024 Wolf Prize in Agriculture. Dubbed the Nobel Prize for agriculture, the prize includes a monetary award of $100,000.
Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Plant Biology and Plant Sciences at UC Davis, Sundaresan is recognized for his pioneering work on plant developmental biology, which holds significant implications for crop improvement.
Sundaresan’s research has led to the development of synthetic apomixis, a method for producing clonal seeds from hybrid plants, eliminating the need for costly and time-consuming crossbreeding."With these clonal hybrids, farmers can save some of their harvested seeds and replant them for the next year’s crop," Sundaresan explained. "This is very good news for smallholder farmers in developing countries who cannot afford to purchase hybrid seeds every year."
"This prize is a very well-deserved recognition of Sundaresan’s groundbreaking work applying an understanding of the basic biology of plant reproduction to create a highly impactful propagation process for hybrid crop strains that are critically important in developing countries," said Mark Winey, dean of the College of Biological Sciences.
"I’m especially pleased that in conferring this award to three basic scientists, the Wolf Foundation is encouraging and recognizing fundamental knowledge as important and deserving of this kind of honor," Sundaresan, who shares the award with Joanne Chory of the Salk Institute and Elliot Meyerowitz of Caltech, said.
Helene Dillard, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, praised Sundaresan and his team's collaborative effort. "Their work exemplifies how academic endeavors do not exist in isolation but are part of a broader, interconnected community effort aimed at creating real-world solutions," she stated.
Sundaresan holds an M.Sc. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology and is the seventh UC Davis professor to receive the Wolf Prize in Agriculture, joining the ranks of Pamela Ronald, Jorge Dubcovsky, Harris Lewin, Roger Beachy, Gurdev Khush, and Shang-Fa Yang.
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