U.S. Sen. John Cornyn visited Texas Tech's Fiber & Biopolymer Research Institute on Thursday (April 12) to discuss cotton research with students and faculty. Cornyn and his wife, Sandy, learned about cutting-edge research taking place at the university to develop the next generation of cotton and new applications for cotton in the marketplace.

The applications will be instrumental in ensuring the continued success of the cotton crop in Lubbock and West Texas.

Tech System Chancellor Kent Hance thanked Cornyn for his advocacy to the industry and taking time to see the research happening at Tech. Bayer CropScience, part of the Bayer Corporation that makes Bayer Aspirin, contributed $7.5 million to Tech and collaborates with researchers at the university, Hance explained.

"This industry means everything to Lubbock, but it also is a big play in Houston to Galveston, where a lot of the shipping takes place, and also on the West Coast in Long Beach," Hance said. "At the shipping center in Long Beach, a lot of cotton from this area goes to China and Taiwan and other places to make cotton fabrics and also to make all types of clothes that come back to us."

Cornyn was briefed on several research projects under way at the institute, including a water-resistant cotton fabric. "If there is one university that excels at the kind of agricultural research projects that we've seen demonstrated here today, it's Texas Tech," Cornyn said. "Of course, Texas produces about 41 percent of the cotton grown in the United States. ... This is not only about jobs here in Texas; this about making things here in the United States and selling them abroad, which creates jobs here."

Making seed and agricultural products that can thrive in spite of lower amounts of water is an important local aspect to cotton research, Cornyn said. Research like that being done at Tech is critical to putting food on the tables of people around the world, he added.

"If there's problems with disease- or insect-resistance, drought-resistance, those sort of characteristics in our products that are researched right here at Texas Tech, and here in America, those (innovations) promise not only to feed a lot of people, but help create jobs here in Texas and allow us to sell higher quality and better income-producing products as a result of this great research," Cornyn said.

Written by Brittany Hoover / Avalanche-Journal

CONTACT: Richard Zartman, Department Chair and Leidigh Professor of Soil Physics, Department of Plant and Soil Science, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2838 or richard.zartman@ttu.edu

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