Maize Genetics Executive Committee (MGEC)

Report to the Community

14 March 2009

Pat Schnable

soon to be past chair, MGEC

MGEC Activities 2008-2009

• Accepted responsibility for organizing the maize session at PAG

• Partnered with the National Corn Growers (Pam Johnson) to ensure funding for the NSF-PGRP

• Discussed the future of the NSF-PGRP with James Collins, assistant director for biological sciences at NSF

• Corrected public record regarding publication productivity of the maize community

Productivity

Many thanks to Mary Schaeffer and Carolyn Lawrence of maizeGDB for collecting publication data and to Rob McClung, president of the ASPB for correcting his newsletter article

Plans for 2009-10

• Create an outreach slide set the highlights the impact of public-sector investments in maize genetics research

• Prepare meeting report for funding agencies (strategy to collect metrics in the future)

• Identify community priorities for future public-sector investment

Hake & Bennetzen Kriz & Larkins

Changes in MGEC Membership

• Elected Positions:– Jeff Bennetzen and Becky Boston

• Appointed Positions (2 yr terms):– Small college/university representative

• Brent Buckner (Truman State Univ), 2010 (replacing Mary Alleman)

– Continuing Latin American representative• Jean-Philippe Vielle-Calzada, 2009

– European representative• Roberto Tuberosa (Univ of Bologna), 2010 (replacing Jane

Langdale)

– Newly created Asian representative• TBA, 2010

Elected Members

• Anne Sylvester (Chair), 2009• Mary (Polacco) Schaeffer, 2009 • Pat Schnable, 2010• Marty Sachs, 2010 • Tom Brutnell, 2011• Virginia Walbot, 2011• William Tracy, 2012• Sue Wessler, 2012• Jeff Bennetzen, 2013• Becky Boston, 2013