BTI virologist leaves for Mississippi State biotechnology institute

Insect virologist H. Alan Wood, for three decades a researcher at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) for Plant Research Inc., located at Cornell, has been named the director of the new Life Sciences and Biotechnology Institute at Mississippi State University.

"Alan has had a productive and distinctive career at BTI for more than 32 years, with his research spanning several areas from fungal and insect viruses to fundamental studies of glycosylation by insect cells," said Daniel F. Klessig, president and chief executive of BTI. "He has contributed to the institute in many ways, including through his service on numerous committees, such as the original building committee responsible for designing our facility, and several search committees that have helped to shape our research directions."

The organizational structure for the new institute at Mississippi State originated from a report written by Ralph Hardy, a former BTI president, and Allan Eaglesham, a former BTI plant physiologist.

In addition to being a senior scientist at BTI, Wood served as an adjunct professor of entomology at Cornell. He participated in the planning of the Cornell Biotechnology Institute, the Cornell Center for the Environment and the university Recombinant DNA Committee, which he had chaired. During his career at BTI, Wood conducted genetic research for use in agriculture and was appointed by Dan Glickman, the former U.S. secretary of agriculture, to serve on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Biotechnology Research Advisory Committee. His work at BTI yielded several patents and more than 100 publications.