Schnable receives early career award in maize genetics

April 16, 2018

Lincoln, Neb. — James Schnable, an assistant professor in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture and Center for Plant Science Innovation at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, received the Marcus Rhoades Early Career Award in maize genetics at the 60^th annual Maize Genetics Conference held in France on March 24.

“It is an honor to receive this award from the maize genetics community,” Schnable said. “It’s also quite special to be given an award named in honor of my academic great-grandmentor, Marcus Rhoades.” Rhoades was an American cytogeneticist who started his career in maize genetics working alongside future Noble Prize winners Barbara McClintock and George Beadle. His research on maize spanned both basic genetics and advances in applied plant breeding.  

Schnable was honored for his work delineating the functionality district subgenomes of maize and separate patterns of selection across during the domestication of maize, sorghum and foxtail millet.

At the same the conference, Michael Scanlon of Cornell University received the Lewis Stadler Mid-Career award and Robert Martienssen from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute was awarded the Barbara McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics and Genome Studies.