80 / SEEDWORLD.COM OCTOBER 2017 Making a Difference Another award, the Plant Breeding Impact Award, recognizes an individual who has made significant advancements in the field of plant breeding, specifically in the area of applied variety or technol- ogy development. This year’s recipient is John Clark, a University of Arkansas distinguished professor of horticulture. As pointed out in his nomination package, Clark “projects the best of plant breeding through not only his outstanding new fruit cultivars but also leadership as a breeder who is a renowned horticulturist, plant biologist and academic.” Since 1980, Clark has led research on blackberries, table grapes, wine/muscadine grapes, blueberries and peaches/nectarines. He has also taught in the areas of plant breeding and fruit production and advises graduate and undergraduate students. Clark has developed more than 50 cultivars of various fruits and has engaged colleagues in cooperative breeding activities through- out the United States and internationally. Along the way, as a col- league commented: “He has greatly internationalized the reach of the University of Arkansas fruit breeding program by establishing relationships with other public and private sector entities in Europe, North America, South America and Australia.” lions of dollars annually. Allan developed two multiline varieties that gave durable economic resistance to strip rust, including the cultivar Rely. Since 1971, his varieties have been grown on several million wheat acres and continue to be planted. A University of Manitoba assistant professor, Robert Duncan, was recognized with NAPB’s Early Career Scientist Award. Duncan leads the university’s cultivar development for canola and rapeseed. Known for his research on blackberries, table grapes, wine grapes, blueberries and peaches and nectarines, John Clark was recognized by NAPB with the 2017 Plant Breeding Impact Award. @MDzakovich: “There’s 750 major league baseball players in the U.S., but only about 120 wheat breeders.” A Promising Career On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Early Career Scientist Award, which was given to Robert Duncan, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba and leader of the Brassica breeding program. Having grown up around his family’s certified seed production farm, Duncan became involved in agriculture and plant breeding at an early age. He earned his bachelor’s degree in agronomy and mas- ter’s in plant pathology from the University of Manitoba before attending UC, Davis, for his doctorate work. Upon completion of his doctorate in 2009, he served as assistant professor and state wheat/oilseed specialist at Texas A&M University. In 2012, he was called back home to lead canola and rapeseed cultivar development for the University of Manitoba. There, he focuses on improving seed quality, disease resistance and several agronomic traits. Duncan has already established a very strong educational component to his program, teaching genetics, advanced plant breeding and cereal and oilseed production practices. He was selected as the 2015-16 Teacher of the Year within the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and won both the University of Manitoba Merit Award for Teaching and the Teaching Award of Merit from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture. He has also advised or co-advised 14 graduate students, and his students have won 19 local, national and international awards since 2013. Of his last four graduate students to complete their degrees, three are plant breeders within industry and the fourth is an assistant professor. Clark’s innovative program in blackberry has led to cultivars with enhanced postharvest storage potential, fall fruiting and dwarf architecture. Similarly impactful on the global scale is the introduction of unique flavor profiles in table grape, exemplified in the recent release, Cotton Candy, based on his work in the Arkansas program and cooperative breeding in California. Intellectual property (IP) rights have been a major emphasis in his career. His releases have played a key role in program funding through royalties and agreements in testing and breeding with various entities. “Clark is recognized as a pioneer and innovator in this area of intellectual property management in public sector breeding pro- grams,” says Jim Luby of the University of Minnesota. “In addition to developing and implementing novel IP management practices in his program, he developed this as a personal trans disciplinary area of scholarly pursuit with collaborators in the fields of law and business, and led an active IP working group in the American Society for Horticultural Science.” Clark also has an outstanding service record, actively serving on committees in the department, college, university and profes- sional societies. “He has earned respect throughout his career for his cultivar releases, willingness to serve, intelligence and personality that allow him to work with anyone anywhere,” says Chad Finn of USDA-ARS. “His charisma, extreme dedication and incredible success as a plant breeder are unmatched.” @may_gun: This is the group I need to hook up with since flavor is my #1 reason for going into fruit breeding.