Dr. Andrew Paterson — ICAC Cotton Researcher of the Year 2012

Dr. Andrew H. Paterson, Regents Professor, heads the University of Georgia’s Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory (PGML) using genomics to study crop improvement, plant biodiversity, and molecular evolution. The Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory has advanced knowledge of cotton, sorghum, sugarcane, peanut, Miscanthus, Bermuda grass, and many other crops, several weeds, one nitrogen-fixing bacterium (Azospirillum), poultry and viruses. He has authored 272 scientific papers, 67 book chapters, edited 4 books, given 183 presentations, and been cited over 16,000 times. He has trained 102 undergraduates, 53 postdocs, and 5 middle/high school teachers, co-conferring 37 advanced degrees with 14 in progress. He was the 1996 CSSA “Young Crop Scientist of the Year”; and is an American Society for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow (2008). He chairs the International Cotton Genome Initiative, and received its first Award for Outstanding Contributions to Cotton Genomics (2010). He also received the first Cotton, Inc. Cotton Biotechnology award (2002), a National Cotton Council Genetics Research Award (2008), a J. S. Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (2007-8), UGA’s D. W. Brooks Award (2005) and Lamar Dodd Award for internationally recognized science research (2009), Univ. Delaware Distinguished Alumni Award (2009), and Christopher Columbus Foundation/American Farm Bureau Distinguished Agriscience Scientist Award (2011). He has served on nine editorial boards, and as reviewer to many granting agencies and initiatives.