The Cotton Genetics Research Award for 2011 was awarded to Keerti Rathore, an associate professor in the department of soil and crops sciences at Texas A&M University. The award has been given for more than 40 years by the US commercial cotton breeders. Rathore who received a plaque and a monetary award, was cited for his work on the reduction of gossypol in cottonseed through genetic modification. The GM cotton allows the protein-rich seed fit for human and monogastric animal consumption while maintaining normal levels of gossypol and related chemicals in other plant parts for insect and pathogen protection.

Dr. Rathore was educated in India and obtained his doctorate in plant physiology from Imperial College, University of London. He worked as a postdoctoral research associate and a research scientist at Purdue University for 10 years, has been the director of Texas A&M's Institute for Plant Genomics and Biotechnology Laboratory for Crop Transformation since 1997, and joined AgriLife Research and Texas A&M in 2003. Rathore's research has been reported in numerous peer reviewed science journals, and he has been granted six U.S. patents.

View the original news at http://agrilife.org/today/2012/01/12/keerti-rathore-honored/.