CIMMYT Scientists Recognized For Contributions to Agriculture

August, 2004

CIMMYT scientists Guillermo Ortiz Ferrara, Craig Meisner, and Mujeeb Kazi have recently been recognized for contributions they have made to agriculture and science over the years.

• The government of the Mexican state of Coahuila awarded Dr. Guillermo Ortiz Ferrara with the Medal of Agronomic Merit in research in June 2004. This year the medals honored graduates of the Universidad Autonoma Agraria Antonio Narro in Coahuila, where Ortiz Ferrara studied from 1966 to 1971 and majored in agronomy. He was one of six agronomists selected by former university presidents and government representatives for carrying out work that produced significant developments in their respective fields. In July 2004, Ortiz Ferrara also received the Presea Saltillo award, which recognizes native citizens of the Mexican city of Saltillo who have distinguished careers. Ortiz Ferrara is a principal scientist in CIMMYT’s South Asia regional office and CIMMYT’s country representative in Nepal.
• Dr. Craig Meisner accepted an international adjunct professorship with the International Agriculture Program at Cornell University in February 2004. This position recognizes Meisner’s collaboration with Cornell in Bangladesh, including work on their Soil Management CRSP with USAID, the Bangladesh Country Almanac, rickets research, arsenic in the environment, and virus-free transgenic papaya. “Together we have made and are continuing to make impacts in growers’ fields,” says Meisner, a Bangladesh-based agronomist in CIMMYT’s Intensive Agroecosystems Program.
• Dr. Mujeeb Kazi was awarded the Kansas State University Gamma Sigma Delta Eta Chapter Outstanding Alumnus Award for 2004. The award recognizes Kazi’s contributions to science as an alumnus of KSU’s College of Agriculture, where he received a Ph.D. in plant breeding in 1970. Kazi, a principal scientist, began working at CIMMYT in 1979 and became head of the Wheat Wide Crosses Unit in 1980. His research in crossing wheat with its wild relatives has made a great impact and expanded the pool of genetic diversity available for wheat improvement. Kazi received the 2003 CGIAR Outstanding Scientist Award for this work.