The Prize Committee for Agriculture has unanimously decided that the 2004 Wolf Prize be jointly awarded to
Yuan Longping
China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center
Mapoling, Hunan Province, China
Steven D. Tanksley
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York, USA
for innovative development of hybrid rice and discovery of the genetic basis of heterosis in this important food staple.
Professor Yuan Longping is one of the scientific giants in modern agricultural research and has made a dramatic impact on worldwide food production. Professor Longping has developed innovative strategies to significantly enhance rice yields, utilizing cytoplasmic male sterility that has led to the development of hybrid rice. Under his leadership, and after a decade of cooperative research efforts among hundreds of rice scientists from numerous research institutes and universities, rice yields were generally enhanced by 20 percent, and China rice production, by 50 percent. Professor Longping has further pioneered “super hybrids” utilizing inter-specific heterosis. As an agricultural scientist, Yuan Longping’s concerns go beyond China’s food supply and extend to the enormous problem of world hunger. To help increase world food supply, he has shared his knowledge, techniques, and breeding materials, with scientists worldwide.
Professor Steven D. Tanksley is one of the world leaders in plant genomic research. He has contributed to the understanding of heterosis in rice by identifying genes in a wild ancestor that significantly increased yields.
Tanksley has demonstrated that quantitatively inherited traits spanning an entire genome, can be dissected into their corresponding Mendelian factors, called quantitative trait loci (QTL). This enables identification of rate-limiting genes associated with crop performance. His demonstration has led to a cascade of experiments by other researchers, who detected and mapped QTLs in a wide array of other organisms. Within Tanksley’s own group, QTL analysis in rice led to the discovery of the genetic basis of hybrid vigor in this important food staple, allowing further developments to increase rice yields. These advances have profound implications in promoting the science of plant breeding for the benefit of humankind.