Category: Inventor of the Year Award

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.

Inventor’s Award 2014

Mark A. Eiteman, professor in UGA’s College of Engineering, is the inventor of multiple technologies directed at the industrial production of important commodity and specialty chemicals using microorganisms. These technologies include amino acids used in animal feed and nutritional supplements; a commodity chemical, which is a non-toxic, environmentally benign antifreeze and also the precursor to many chemicals and therapeutic agents; and a group of organic acids used in the production of polymers, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Each of these technologies, licensed to four multinational companies with global manufacturing and distribution capabilities, has been implemented on an industrial scale for a variety of uses. His ingenuity is further illustrated by the development of processes and engineered organisms for the simultaneous microbial fermentation of pentoses and hexoses leading to the production of biofuels and multiple commodity chemicals. Eiteman is a named inventor in five U.S. Issued Patents and multiple foreign patents.

Inventor’s Award 2013

D. Scott NeSmith, professor of horticulture, has been an extraordinarily productive researcher and inventor of new plant varieties since joining UGA’s Griffin Campus in 1990. NeSmith’s research focuses particularly on the study of blueberries, and he has released and patented 10 new commercial blueberry varieties and two ornamental blueberry varieties since becoming head of the UGA Blueberry Breeding Program in 1998. Using the latest scientific techniques, NeSmith is able to develop blueberries suited to different climates and growing conditions. His sought-after expertise has led to collaborations with farmers and researchers throughout the world including South Africa, Japan, New Zealand and much of Europe. Due in part to his efforts, the blueberry has become Georgia number one fruit crop, even surpassing the famous Georgia peach. Blueberries like the ones NeSmith develops earned Georgia farmers about $134 million, according to the 2010 Georgia Farm Gate Value Report, and their popularity with professional farmers and the casual gardener continues to grow thanks to NeSmith’s tireless work.

Inventor’s Award 2011

Roger Boerma, Distinguished Research Professor of Crop and Soil Sciences and director, UGA Center for Soybean Improvement and UGA Center for Applied Genetic Technologies, developed several superior transgenic and conventional soybean cultivars now widely grown across the country.

Boerma’s use of DNA marker-assisted selection shortened the breeding cycle for development of new soybean cultivars by more than three years. The cultivars have superior seed yield and resistance to multiple species of nematodes and fungal diseases. The high-yielding Woodruff cultivar includes two new yield genes, discovered in a Japanese soybean accession and transferred into Woodruff using the DNA marker technology.

The widespread use of Boerma’s improved cultivars has lessened the need for pesticides—while also boosting seed yield, with the overall effect being reduced production costs. Boerma’s soybean cultivars not only provide greater profit per acre but are also more sustainable.

Previous Award

Distinguished Research Professor 1994

Inventor’s Award 2010

Mike Doyle, professor and director, UGA Center for Food Safety, and Tong Zhao, assistant research scientist, invented a food wash that significantly reduces the risk of food borne illnesses. The wash kills pathogens faster and more effectively on foods than any currently available wash product. And, in addition to killing pathogens on fruits and vegetables, it can also be used to clean kitchen counters, cutting boards, and food processing equipment in commercial settings. It is many times more powerful on foods than commercially available chlorine- based antimicrobials, yet its components are generally regarded as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Union food industry. The antibacterial wash kills food pathogens in just one minute after application. It has been successfully tested against more than 30 different harmful microbes, including E. coli O157,Salmonella, B. anthracis and Yersinia pestis. The wash doesn’t affect the appearance, flavor, or odor of foods, and it increases shelf life of produce. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that food borne pathogens cause more than 76 million illnesses every year in the U.S. alone, hospitalizing some 300,000 people and killing more than 5,000. The technology, which is expected to be incorporated into FIT® Food and Vegetable Wash products by UGARF’s licensee in the first half of this year, is also applicable for use in food processing and transportation facilities, hospitals, restaurants, live animals—and potentially as a food additive in butters, creams and ground meats. This treatment is the culmination of more than a decade of research by Doyle and Zhao in developing food safety interventions for the consumer and food industry.

Inventor’s Award 2009

Michael Dirr, professor of horticulture (retired), has introduced more than 100 new plant varieties to the horticultural world and, through his lifelong passion for plants, has inspired generations of students, gardeners, and professional horticulturists. Many of his introductions are licensed worldwide; others have contributed significantly to the nursery economy in Georgia and the U.S. Often called the Hydrangea Guru, he developed the varieties ‘Lady in Red’ and ‘Twist-n-Shout,’ the first of many patented releases with improved traits such as cold hardiness, repeat blooming and/or drought tolerance. Among Dirr’s other top-selling introductions are the abelias ‘Rose Creek’ and ‘Canyon Creek,’ the buddleias ‘Attraction’ and ‘Bicolor,’ the fothergilla ‘Mt. Airy,’ the ‘Dazzle’ line of crape myrtles, and his latest gardenia‘Heaven Scent.’ Top tree introductions include a wide variety of maples, elms, ginkgos, ashes and magnolias. He has written more than 300 scientific and popular publications and is the author of 12 books, including Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, and The Manual of Woody Landscape Plants: Their Identification, Ornamental Characteristics, Culture, Propagation, and Uses, the country’s most widely used teaching and horticultural reference text. This volume, which was honored by the American Horticultural Society as one of the greatest garden books of the past 75 years, has sold more than 500,000 copies.

Inventor’s Award 2008

Vasu Nair, William H. Terry, Sr. Professor, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, Head of the Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, and director of the UGA Center for Drug Discovery, worked for more than a decade to bring HIV integrase inhibitors to the point where they could be licensed. Drug developers, including Nair, had been targeting HIV integrase for years, without success. But when he came to UGA’s College of Pharmacy in 2002, he began working on an entirely new class of HIV integrase inhibitors. Nair and his team came to understand that HIV integrase recognized certain constituents of human DNA that made it “want” to incorporate into that chemical chain. Because the strongest of these attractions was to a class of DNA components called pyrimidine, researchers built their inhibitor around a pyrimidine scaffold, which serves as a lure for HIV integrase in order to trap it. The potent anti-HIV activity and preclinical data suggest that the inhibitor has significant potential as an anti-HIV agent.