The Warren Kronstad Wheat Research Chair
In 1986, farmer Eric Anderson and Bob Buchanan, then director of the state Department of Agriculture, accepted a major challenge from Oregon wheat growers: to lead a campaign to raise funds for an endowed chair dedicated to wheat research at OSU. Its mission: to keep Oregon's wheat industry profitable by developing new varieties of wheat and researching other significant issues of concern to the industry.
Thanks to widespread and generous response from individual wheat growers, agribusiness, the Oregon Wheat Commission, and other associations, the target goal was reached in less than a year. The Wheat Research Chair was the first position at OSU endowed by gifts from many people and organizations, and the first endowed chair in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
There was little doubt about who would become the chair's first holder. Warren Kronstad, a world-class scientist and teacher was already a member of the OSU faculty, and had been since 1959. After receiving his B.S. and M.S. from Washington State University, Professor Kronstad came to OSU, where he earned a Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics. After joining the faculty, he worked on projects in many countries, including a multi-year research effort in Turkey that resulted in dramatic increases in wheat production there.
Despite Professor Kronstad's strong commitment to international agriculture, he never forgot the wheat farmers in the Pacific Northwest. Today, cultivars he and his colleagues occupy approximately 85 percent of wheat acreage in the region. He developed the Stephens cultivar, which comprises about three-fourths of all wheat grown in Oregon and is also a major crop in Washington and Idaho.
Upon Professor Kronstad's retirement in December, 1998, the Wheat Research Chair was renamed the Warren Kronstad Wheat Research Chair.
Jim Peterson
After spending nearly fifteen years in wheat research with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Lincoln, Nebraska, Dr. Jim Peterson came to OSU in 1998 to succeed Dr. Warren Kronstad as project leader for the OSU wheat breeding and genetics program. After Dr. Kronstad's retirement, Dr. Peterson was appointed to the Warren Kronstad Wheat Research Chair in June, 2000.
Dr. Peterson received a Ph.D. in agronomy and plant breeding from the University of Nebraska in 1984. With the USDA-ARS, Dr. Peterson conducted breeding and research on end-use quality improvement of wheat, culminating in the release of the winter varieties Wesley and Nuplains. He has served on national and regional wheat improvement committees and was coordinator of the Hard Winter Wheat Regional Program. Over the past ten years, he has received more than $1 million in research grants.
Dr. Peterson sees his role as building upon the OSU wheat program's strengths and traditions through the use of new technologies, new breeding strategies, and novel genetic resources. He emphasizes the importance of cross-disciplinary and public/private research collaborations.
"Public breeding programs that are successful will be those that are well focused, multidisciplinary, and vertically integrated," says Dr. Peterson. "Complex pressures are affecting the wheat industry, including increasing production costs, erratic weather stresses, constantly evolving disease and insect threats, and competitive market forces.
"Future breakthroughs in disease resistance, stress tolerance, end-use quality, and grain yield of new varieties will require contributions and collaborations from many diverse research disciplines."
