but it represented an innovation in distributed data collection that was far ahead of its time,[7]" said rice geneticist Susan McCouch, the Barbara McClintock Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University.
[8] Coffman took on leadership roles at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in the 1990s, and in 2001 was named Director of International Programs.
The report sounded the alarm to risks facing wheat supplies in Kenya, Ethiopia and nearby wheat-growing regions.
The scientists warned that the spread of Ug99 could be devastating to world wheat supplies, especially in resource-poor areas of Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
[10] Heeding the warning, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided $27 million in funding to establish the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative.
As vice-chair of the BGRI, Coffman led efforts to bring together more than 2,500 scientists from 35 international institutions in 23 countries into a global collaborative community.
[11] The BGRI has received more than $100 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Since 2008, the BGRI’s partner institutions have released over 270 rust resistant wheat varieties in 11 at-risk countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sudan.