Proceedings of the Warren E. Kronstad Symposium

Abstract

On 15-17 of March 2001, CIMMYT held a special symposium in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico, in memory of Dr. Warren E. Kronstad, Distinguished Professor at Oregon State University, who died on 21 May 2000, after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Dr. Kronstad was a good friend and an esteemed collaborator of the CIMMYT Wheat Program for many years. Starting in the early 1970s, he collaborated with Dr. Norman Borlaug and this author on making crosses between the winter wheat and spring wheat gene pools. He was also a founder and active participant in the CIMMYT/OSU wheat shuttle breeding program that has so successfully bred wheats for different environments all over the world. I met Warren in the 1970s, and from the beginning I was struck by his dedication to wheat breeding research and plain old hard work. One of the top breeders in the USA, Warren was very successful, as evidenced by the impact of his breeding efforts, not only in the USA, but also in developing countries. Nonetheless, I’m convinced that his biggest contribution was the graduate training program he initiated at Oregon State University. More than 80 MSc and PhD students and visiting scientists, many from developing nations, studied at OSU during Dr. Kronstad’s tenure. He was one of a few agricultural scientists in the USA who had a vision of the developing world. He was deeply committed to eliminating hunger through the increase of the food supply and by mentoring young scientists in sound plant breeding. His contributions to improving wheat production not only in the US, but also in the developing world, will be long remembered.