As the world population passes the 6 billion mark, pioneering work to guarantee food sustainability continues at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research Inc. (BTI), the largest not-for-profit organization dedicated to plant research in the world. Located on the Cornell campus, BTI celebrated its official 75th anniversary Sept. 24 and will mark the occasion more formally with a black-tie gala Monday, Oct. 4.
"In retrospect, we can see that by helping people study plants, William Boyce Thompson has helped humankind. His vision led to studies that helped create national air pollution standards that not only protect plants but also all of us who breathe the same air," said Charles J. Arntzen, president and chief executive of the institute. "We have created a new technology that is used to create an inhalable version of insulin that will save diabetics from millions of painful injections each year and another for pain-free, inexpensive edible vaccines for our children and those in developing countries."
With a $10 million endowment of his own money, mining magnate William Boyce Thompson formed the institute, which officially opened Sept. 24, 1924, in Yonkers, N.Y. He urged BTI scientists to study "why and how plants grow, why they languish or thrive, how their diseases may be conquered, how their development may be stimulated by the regulation of the elements which contribute to their life." He knew that without such research, farmers would struggle to feed the skyrocketing world population in the 20th century.
In 1974 the institute moved to the Cornell campus, where plant researchers continue to live up to Thompson's vision by contributing to the green revolution that now feeds millions worldwide. Researchers focus on anti-cancer compounds in plants, on nutritionally rich foods and on vaccines in plant form, such as bananas and potatoes. They also are involved with environmental conservation, forest biology, plant genomics, plant nutrition and disease resistance.
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