Noted plant breeder and researcher Ellen Peffley has been named to Texas Tech's Department of Plant and Soil Science Faculty Hall of Fame. A reception honoring Peffley was held on Friday (Oct. 30) as part of the ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house activities surrounding CASNR's new Bayer Plant Science Building. She is the sixth faculty hall of fame member to be added to the distinguished group.

"Dr. Peffley has served the Department of Plant and Soil Science and the university with great distinction," said Michael Galyean, dean of Tech's College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

The self-described city girl from Albuquerque, who grew up to become one of the most outstanding professors in Tech's College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and winner of the Chancellor's Council Award for Distinguished Teaching, retired from the university in 2008.

Peffley earned her bachelor's degree in 1977 and master's degree in horticulture at New Mexico State University in 1981. She completed her doctorate in agronomy from NMSU in 1985, the first doctorate awarded to a woman in that department. Peffley then served as an Asgrow Seed Company field production representative in Gonzales, Calif., and a vegetable quality assurance analyst in Kalamazoo, Mich., during the late 1970s.

She joined Texas Tech as a visiting assistant professor in 1984 and rose through the academic ranks over the next two decades. She was named a professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Science in 2001. While at Tech, Peffley and her research team worked with NASA's Advanced Life Sciences program to provide onions as a sustainable fresh food supply for astronauts on extended missions.

At the end of her tenure as a faculty member, Peffley led an innovative study abroad class that took Tech students to prominent gardens in Europe. The class included tours of several gardens and museums in Paris and the surrounding communities, as well as Normandy, Northern France, and Southern Belgium.

Peffley earned emeritus designation from the university in 2008. The Ellen B. Peffley Scholarship Endowment was established by Peffley in 2010. The scholarship is awarded to graduate and undergraduate students majoring in horticulture and enrolled in the horticultural science degree plan with science as their emphasis.

Written by Norman Martin

CONTACT: Eric Hequet, Department Chair, Department of Plant and Soil Science, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2838 or eric.hequet@ttu.edu

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Editor's Note: If you would like to contribute online directly to the Ellen B. Peffley Scholarship Endowment, please go to http://donate.give2tech.com/?fid=T871C0L