Rod Wing

Rod Wing earned his PhD in yeast genetics at UC Davis in 1987. He then moved into plant biology, first as a postdoc with Sheila McCormick (USDA-ARS Plant Gene Expression Center) and then with Steve Tanksley (Cornell University). Rod became an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University in 1991 in the Soil & Crop Sciences Department. There his lab constructed the first plant BAC libraries in 1993/4 for sorghum, Arabidopsis and rice. In 1997 he moved his lab to Clemson University and founded the Clemson University Genomics Institute where he was appointed the Coker Endowed Chair of Plant Molecular Genetics. There his lab developed a BAC-based physical map for the rice genome and led the USA effort to sequence rice chromosomes 3 and 10. In 2002 Rod moved to the University of Arizona and founded the Arizona Genomics Institute which has played significant roles in over 30 plant and animal genome sequencing projects to date. Professor Wing has received numerous appointments and awards including the USDA Secretary’s Honor Award for Superior Service, Group Leader - United States Rice Genome Consortia (2004), the first holder of Bud Antle Endowed Chair of Excellence in Agriculture & Life Science (2005), the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award (2010), and most recently, the AXA Endowed Chair for Genome Biology and Evolutionary Genomics (2014). This new AXA Chair award opens a new chapter for Dr. Wing as it will allow him to translate the past 20 years of genomic research in rice into practical solutions to help solve the 9-billion people question – i.e. how can we grow enough food to feed the world by 2050.