NEWS

Jerry Johnson

Inventor’s Award 2015

Jerry Johnson, professor of crop and soil sciences, has developed or co-developed a total of 44 new small grain crop varieties, including several wheat and barley cultivars. His research focuses particularly on the development of plant seeds or tissues that resist common diseases and pests, such as leaf rust, powdery mildew and Hessian fly. Johnson continues to release approximately two new wheat varieties of year, and the total gross license revenue received by UGARF from the commercialization of his varieties totals nearly $3 million. With other land grant universities, he was also instrumental in establishing the Sungrains Cooperative Breeding Group, a small grain breeding and marketing effort that gives private industry a valuable source for elite new plant varieties. The discoveries made in Johnson’s lab continue to benefit farmers throughout the southeast, who are constantly searching for new crop varieties that promise to increase yields.