Pam Ronald Wins Wolf Prize in Agriculture

Plant geneticist awarded for work in global rice sustainability

UC Davis plant geneticist and IGI Investigator Pam Ronald has been named the recipient of the 2022 International Wolf Prize in Agriculture, given by the Jerusalem-based Wolf Foundation in recognition of her “pioneering work on disease resistance and environmental stress tolerance in rice.”

She is the first woman among six UC Davis scientists to receive the Wolf Prize in Agriculture. The foundation has been giving its $100,000 prizes in agriculture and other disciplines since 1978, honoring scientists and artists from around the world “for their achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations amongst peoples.” This year the foundation gave multiple prizes in chemistry, physics and architecture, and single awards in mathematics, music and agriculture.

Ronald is a distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology, having joined the faculty in 1992, and is also affiliated with the UC Davis Genome Center, the Innovative Genomics Institute, and the Physical Biosciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The Wolf Foundation noted her work isolating a gene that allows rice to survive two weeks of flooding and increases yield by 60% compared to conventional varieties. “Her discoveries show an advanced understanding of fundamental biological processes and enhance sustainable agriculture and food security,” the foundation said in its announcement of her prize.

Flood-tolerant rice varieties are now grown by more than 6 million subsistence farmers in India and Bangladesh. The committee noted that those two countries lose more than 4 million tons of rice each year to flooding, enough to feed 30 million people.

Ronald founded the UC Davis Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy to provide the next generation of scientists with the training they need to become effective communicators. She and her husband, Raoul Adamchak, an organic farmer who retired in 2020 as the market garden coordinator for the UC Davis Student Farm, are the authors of Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food.

The Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for Agricultural and Life Sciences named Ronald a World Agricultural Prize Laureate in 2020.

This story was originally published by the UC Davis.

 
Media Contacts:
Andy Murdock, andymurdock@berkeley.edu
Amy Quinton, amquinton@ucdavis.edu

By Amy Quinton

Amy Quinton writes about agricultural research and veterinary sciences at UC Davis. She holds a BA in in journalism from Boston University and and MA in journalism and public policy from American University. 

Before joining the Strategic Communications team at UC Davis, Amy worked as a television and public radio reporter. She has traveled far and wide in search of a good story, including  whitewater rafting down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, backpacking through post-wildfire terrain in the Sierra, and tromping through mud flats in New England estuaries.