Agricultural News
Dr. Liuling Yan Receives Oklahoma Wheat Commission "Staff of Life" Honor
Mon, 11 May 2015 12:14:17 CDT
The Oklahoma Wheat Commission presented the Oklahoma Wheat Commission's "Staff of Life" award to Dr. Liuling Yan last Friday at the Oklahoma State University Lahoma Field Day. Yan is an assistant professor, wheat molecular geneticist and breeder for the OSU wheat breeding program. Dr. Yan has been instrumental in increased advancements made in wheat variety development at OSU, and his efforts have also been influential in other parts of the United States. With his laboratory work in gene selection and using marker assistance to find specific traits that combat foliar diseases such as leaf rust, stripe rust, or finding genes to increase wheat yield, Yan no doubt, has been a major contributor to the work being accomplished with the breeding program at OSU. Billings, Duster, Ruby Lee, Garrison, Gallagher, Iba and Doublestop CL Plus are just some of the wheat varieties that have come out of the OSU wheat breeding program while Dr. Yan has been a member of the Wheat Improvement Team (WIT) as a molecular geneticist.
The "Staff of Life" award is the highest award honor given by the Oklahoma Wheat Commission (OWC) to an individual who meets the criteria of dedicating many hours of service to our wheat industry when it comes to helping market and promote.
Dr. Yan has spent countless years of service in many different areas for Oklahoma wheat producers with much of that time being in the laboratory. He has been key in the rapid deployment of a unique gene in the wheat variety Duster known as LR 34 that has had resistance against many foliar disease pathogens. The Duster variety made significant strides for the OSU breeding program and paved the way for other important varieties at OSU, two of them being Gallagher and Iba.
Dr. Yan has also focused on a variety development program with the rest of the WIT at OSU that creates varieties that have impressive milling and baking characteristics for end use quality. "As a custom harvester when I travel the state, many wheat producers say they are behind the work of the public wheat breeding program at OSU," said Don Schieber, chairman of the OWC board. "They are behind this effort because the WIT at OSU has been good about focusing on the agronomic traits producers need while also concentrating on end use quality aspects. It is safe to say none of this would have been accomplished without the laboratory work of Dr. Yan and for this reason the Oklahoma Wheat Commission wanted to give him this award," said Schieber.
The Oklahoma Wheat Commission funded by wheat producer support works to promote greater utilization of wheat in both domestic and international markets through research, market development and public education. Five wheat producers representing designated districts across the state serve as the Oklahoma Wheat Commission's board of directors. Current officers are, Don Schieber, chairman, Ponca City; Kenneth Failes vice chairman, Cherokee; Tom Stephens, secretary-treasurer, Guymon; Michael Peters, member, Okarche; and David Gammill, member, Chattanooga.
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