The ACS International Award for Research in Agrochemicals is given to a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the field of agrochemicals at the international level. Their vision and sustained contributions will have opened new horizons for other investigators in their field and beyond. Nominations are now being sought for the 2021 Award winner to be presented at the ACS Fall 2021 National Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Deadline for nominations is December 31, 2019. For details on the nomination process, see the the Call for Nominations.
For more information, please contact James Seiber, AGRO Awards Committee Chair, 530-752-1141.
2018 Award Recipient
Stephen Powles is the Director of the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) and Professor at the University of Western Australia. AHRI is a 20 person multi-disciplinary team, ranging from agronomists to molecular biologists and communicators, focused on the major problem of herbicide resistant weeds in Australian agriculture. In focusing on herbicide resistance, Powles has built on his crop science degrees (BS from Western Sydney University, MS from Michigan State University) and his physiology/biochemistry PhD and postdocs (PhD from Australian National University, postdocs at Stanford University and the University of Paris). During his postdoc years in the USA and in France, Powles became aware of early cases of herbicide resistance evolution in plants (weedy species).
Herbicide resistance was a miniscule issue in the early 1980s, but Stephen correctly judged that herbicide resistance would become a major issue in global agriculture. He resolved to apply his agronomic and biochemical expertise to this emerging problem. As herbicide resistance exploded first in his native Australia and then in North America and elsewhere, Stephen had built multi-disciplinary research teams that tackled problems at many levels, from
fundamental research to practical on-farm solutions.
For 33 years, he has led large research teams making major advances ranging from on-farm management to elucidating the precise details of molecular mutations responsible for resistance. Stephen and colleagues have published 250 research papers, and he has edited two books on herbicide resistance. He is widely recognized as the global leader in herbicide resistance research.
For his research achievements, Stephen was elected to the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering. For many years, he has been one of the world’s most highly cited scientists. Stephen is strongly committed to communication of research and achieving adoption of technology through his
presentations, use of social media platforms, and a willingness to utilize his research funds to employ professional communicators. Through this combination of conducting leading research and major commitment to communication, Stephen and his colleagues have made major contributions to understanding and managing herbicide resistance in global crop production.
Past Awardees
2017
Jeffrey Bloomquist, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
2016
Yoshihisa Ozoe, Shimane University, Japan
2015
Keith D. Wing, formerly of Rohm and Haas and DuPont Crop Protection, Wilmington, DE
2014
Ralf Nauen, Bayer CropScience, Monheim, Germany
2013
René Feyereisen, National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA), France
2012
Thomas C. Sparks, Dow AgroSciences, Indianapolis, IN
2011
George P. Lahm, DuPont Crop Science, Newark, Delaware
2010
Shinzo Kagabu, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan
2009
R. Donald Wauchope, USDA-ARS (retired), Tifton, Georgia
2008
David M. Soderlund, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
2007
Gerald T. Brooks, University of Sussex (retired), Brighton, UK
2007
Fredrick J. Perlak, Monsanto, St. Louis, Missouri
2006
Joel Coats, Iowa State University, Ames
2006
Isamu Yamaguchi, Agricultural Chemicals Inspection Station, Tokyo, Japan
2005
Robert Krieger, University of California-Riverside
2005
Janice E. Chambers, Mississippi State University, Starkville
2004
Stephen Duke, USDA-ARS, Oxford, Mississippi
2004
John Marshall Clark, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
2003
Hideo Ohkawa, Kobe University, Japan
2003
Bob Hollingworth, Michigan State University, East Lansing
2002
Marinus Los, American Cyanamid, Princeton, New Jersey
2002
Keith Solomon, University of Guelph, Canada
2001
Ralph Mumma, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
2001
Donald Crosby, University of California-Davis
2000
Herbert B. Scher, Zeneca, Richmond, California
2000
George P. Georghiou, University of California-Riverside
1999
James Seiber, University of Nevada-Reno
1999
Don Baker, Zeneca, Richmond, California
1998
Leslie Crombie, University of Nottingham, England
1998
George Levitt, DuPont, Wilmington, Delaware
1997
Izuru Yamamoto, University of Tokyo, Japan
1997
Fritz Führ, Institute of Chemistry and Dynamic, Jülich, Germany
1996
Klaus Naumann, Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany
1996
Günther Voss, Ciba, Basel, Switzerland
1995
Mohyee Eldefrawi, University of Maryland-Baltimore
1995
Koji Nakanishi, Columbia University, New York, New York
1994
Toshio Fujita, Kyoto University, Japan
1993
Morifuso Eto, Kyushu University, Fukoka, Japan
1992
Bruce Hammock, University of California-Davis
1991
Stuart Frear, USDA-ARS, Fargo, North Dakota
1990
David Schooley, University of Nevada-Reno
1989
Toshio Narahashi, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
1988
Ernest Hodgson, North Carolina State University
1987
Fumio Matsumura, Michigan State University, East Lansing
1986
James Tumlinson, USDA-ARS, Gainesville, Florida
1985
Junshi Miyamoto, Sumitomo Chemical Co., Japan
1984
Jacques Jean Martel, Roussel Uclaf, Paris, France
1983
Karl Heinz Buechel, Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany
1982
Jack R. Plimmer, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, Maryland
1981
Philip C. Kearney, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, Maryland
1979
Milton S. Schechter, USDA-ARS (retired), Beltsville, Maryland
1978
Julius J. Menn, Stauffer Chemical Co., Mountain View, California
1977
Francis A. Gunther, University of California-Riverside
1976
Morton Beroza, USDA-ARS (retired), Beltsville, Maryland
1975
Michael Elliot, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, England
1974
T. Roy Fukuto, University of California-Riverside
1973
Hubert Martin, British Crop Protection Council, London, England
1972
Ralph L. Wain, Wye College, University of London,England
1971
Robert L. Metcalf, University of Illinois, Champagne-Urban
1970
Richard D. O’Brien, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
1969
John E. Casida, University of California-Berkley