Texas Tech Department of Plant & Soil Science Associate Professor Rosalyn Shim
Rosalyn Shim, an associate professor of plant breeding and genetics in Texas Tech's Department of Plant & Soil Science, has been selected to receive the 2026 Seed Science Award from the Crop Science Society of America, a national honor recognizing exceptional contributions to seed science through research, teaching, extension and leadership.
'Seeds are the foundation of everything we grow, and it is a privilege to advance our field through classroom teaching, scientific discovery and professional leadership.'
The award places Shim among a select group of scientists whose work has advanced the understanding and application of seed science, an area central to improving crop productivity, resilience and global food security. She will be recognized during the Crop Science Society of America's 2026 Crop, Agronomic, Environmental & Soil Sciences Connect Awards Luncheon on Nov. 2 in Portland, Oregon.
In announcing the honor, the society praised Shim's career accomplishments, noting that the award recognizes her "outstanding contributions and achievements" in seed science and technology.
“I am truly grateful to receive the CSSA Seed Science Award and deeply appreciate this recognition from my peers,” Shim said. “Seeds are the foundation of everything we grow, and it is a privilege to advance our field through classroom teaching, scientific discovery and professional leadership."
For Shim, the recognition reflects years of research focused on one of agriculture's most pressing challenges: broadening the genetic diversity available to modern crop breeding.
The domestication of major crops has produced remarkable gains in yield and plant architecture, but that progress has often come at the cost of genetic diversity. As breeding programs concentrated on a relatively small number of desirable traits, many crops became more vulnerable to diseases, pests and environmental stresses.
Shim's research seeks to reverse that trend by identifying valuable genetic traits preserved in the wild relatives of important crops, including cotton, tomato and rice. Her laboratory combines classical genetics with advanced genomics to discover genes associated with key agronomic characteristics, map and validate their functions, and develop molecular markers that accelerate crop improvement through modern breeding.
A second area of her research examines the genetic mechanisms that govern how chromosomes from wild species are transmitted into cultivated crops. A better understanding of those processes could enable plant breeders to more efficiently transfer beneficial traits from wild relatives into commercial varieties, expanding the genetic resources available for future crop improvement.
Before joining the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources faculty in 2017, Shim served as an assistant professor in the Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biosystem at Nagoya University's Bioscience and Biotechnology Center in Japan. Much of that appointment was spent as a visiting research fellow at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, where she conducted research on rice genetics and breeding. She also completed postdoctoral research at Nagoya University and worked as a consultant for the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
Shim earned bachelor's and master's degrees in genetics from the University of the Philippines Los Baños before completing her doctorate in agricultural sciences at Nagoya University.
Her previous honors include selection as a 2024 E. Kika De La Garza Fellow, a national recognition awarded to faculty and staff from Hispanic-Serving Institutions who demonstrate leadership in advancing agricultural education, research and public service. She also received the Nagoya University Global Center of Excellence Scholarship and was recognized as an Affiliate M.S. Thesis Research Scholar with the T.T. Chang Genetic Resources Center.
CONTACT: Krishna Jagadish, Interim Chair and Professor, Department of Plant & Soil Science, Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, Texas Tech University at (806) 834-7953 or kjagadish.sv@ttu.edu
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