Plenary Lecture: Rod A. Wing - "Natural Variation Across the Oryza Genus"
Bud Antle Endowed Chair of Excellent in Agriculture – University of Arizona; AXA Endowed Chair of Evolutionary Genomics and Genome Biology – International Rice Research Institute; Director, Arizona Genomics Institute, USA
Rod earned his PhD in yeast genetics at UC Davis in 1987. He then moved into plant biology, first as a postdoc with Sheila McCormick (USDA-ARS Plant Gene Expression Center) and then as a research associate with Steve Tanksley (Cornell University). Rod became an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University in 1991 in the Soil & Crop Sciences Department. There his lab constructed the first plant BAC libraries in 1993/4 for sorghum, Arabidopsis and rice.
In 1997 he moved his lab to Clemson University and founded the Clemson University Genomics Institute where he was appointed the Coker Endowed Chair of Plant Molecular Genetics. There his lab developed a BAC-based physical map for the rice genome and led the USA effort to sequence rice chromosomes 3 and 10.
In 2002 Rod moved to the University of Arizona and founded the Arizona Genomics Institute which has played significant roles in over 30 plant and animal genome sequencing projects to date. There he was appointed the first Bud Antle Endowed Chair of Excellence in Agriculture in 2004.
Time: 9:45 AM-10:30 AM