TOMI collaborator James Myers awarded 2022 ASHS Fellow

TOMI congratulates James R. Myers on his selection as a 2022 American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) Fellow! Jim is the Baggett-Frazier Endowed Professor of Vegetable Breeding and Genetics at Oregon State University. He has taught agronomy, breeding, genetics, germplasm and horticulture classes at the University of Kentucky-Lexington, University of Idaho, Kimberly and Oregon State University. He has had a prolific career breeding vegetable crops for fresh market and processing with improved nutrition, disease resistance, and suitability for organic production-- including beans, tomatoes, broccoli, squash, sweet corn and habanero peppers. Jim directs the NIFA OREI funded Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative (NOVIC) and is a collaborator on the Tomato Organic Management and Improvement (TOMI) project. He also works with the Culinary Breeding Network, which brings chefs and breeders together to develop varieties with desirable culinary qualities. 

Some of his many variety releases include high anthocyanin 'Indigo' tomatoes, virus and insect-resistant dry beans, white mold-resistant snap bean germplasm, snap and snow peas with multiple disease resistance, and hybrid and open-pollinated broccoli bred for ease of harvest and adaptation to organic systems. In partnership with collaborators in Tanzania, he also developed high yielding, disease and insect-resistant dry beans adapted to eastern and southern Africa. In 2022, the ASHS also awarded Melike Cirak, one of his recent graduate students, and Jim the Vegetable Publication Award for their article Cosmetic Stay-green Trait in Snap Bean and the Event Cascade that Reduces Seed Germination and Emergence. 

Jim has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles, 2 books, 15 book chapters, and many more conference proceedings, extension articles and newsletters. He has mentored 10 PhD and 17 Master's students, and advised many international advanced degree and undergraduate students. As a plant breeder, he has released 31 cultivars with 4 more close to release. Congratulations to Jim for this well-deserved honor!