"Further enhancements in stress tolerance and yield potentials of major food crops will have to rely on the ability of modern genetic technology..."
The College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources has selected Benildo de los Reyes as its nominee for the 2021 Barnie E. Rushing, Jr. Distinguished Research Award. The award recognizes excellence in research, scholarship, and creative activity.
After initial nomination by the college, there are two phases of evaluation. First, nominees are evaluated by a committee comprised of the Associate Deans of Research, who will select two finalists. These are submitted to the Texas Tech Parents Association, who will make the final award decision.
Nominees for the Barnie E. Rushing, Jr. award are evaluated on the quality of scholarship, publications, and reference letters. Their research contributions should be of such quality to be recognized as nationally significant by industry peers.
On a broad scale, de los Reyes' research aims to address the question of how to feed a rapidly growing global population in a climate that is rapidly changing. According to de los Reyes, developing the next generation of climate-resilient crops "will have to rely on the ability of modern genetic technology." By studying patterns of genetic and epigenetic changes using genomics-enabled hypothesis-testing, he is examining the development of traits for stress tolerance.