Reddy receives 2010 Cotton Physiology Award
A Mississippi State University plant physiologist is being honored with the 2010 Outstanding Research Award in Cotton Physiology.
K. Raja Reddy, professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, received the award at the 2011 Beltwide Cotton Physiology Conference in Atlanta in January.
Sponsored by the Arysta Life Science Corporation -- the world's largest privately held agrochemical company -- the award recognizes an individual or team that has significantly improved the knowledge of the physiology of cotton growth and development.
A 23-year veteran at Mississippi State, Reddy has authored or co-authored over 150 publications including 106 refereed journals and 28 book chapters.
Nominators of Reddy praised his contributions to cotton physiology, particularly in abiotic stress responses and cotton modeling.
"Dr. Reddy has made profound impacts on cotton modeling including climate change," said Dan Reynolds, Plant and Soil Science interim head. "He has been in the forefront of scientific developments in agro-climatology and agronomic modeling, as well as remote sensing."
Mike Collins, director of the division of plant sciences at the University of Missouri, nominated Reddy for the award. Collins noted that Reddy's cotton modeling research is used by researchers and farmers around the country.
"He developed a method to utilize daily temperature records to project the incremental growth and/or development of various plant organs for each day," Collins said. "It has been incorporated into a comprehensive cotton crop model, GOSSYM, which predicts cotton responses on a day-by-day basis, depending on real weather conditions. The model provides real-time information that is useful to producers during the season for determining additional management practices to optimize yields."
Reddy earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati, India. He is the recipient of several awards including the Mississippi Agricultural and Experimental Station Award of Excellence and the American Society of Agronomy Award of Excellence. He is a fellow of both the American Society of America and the Crop Science Society of America.
