A Corn Leader

It is not to resort to hyperbole to say that Arnel Hallauer 
has had as much impact on the world's ability to grow corn as 
any scientist, dead or alive. Fifteen years ago, he developed 
the B73 line of hybrid corn. It remains the basis for 
virtually all the seed-parent lines of corn throughout the 
United States and much of the rest of the world.

"But I'd have to say the most important contribution we've 
made is more general -- the improvement of germ plasm," said 
the Iowa State distinguished professor. "The driving force 
for me has always been improving basic knowledge."

That drive was born on the Kansas prairie nearly 50 years 
ago. As a 14-year-old farm kid, he took a job doing grunt 
work for a Kansas State University plant breeder. While 
millions of other kids have viewed detasseling as nothing 
more than a means of earning spending cash, Hallauer 
immediately saw it as an entree into a life's work. "It may 
have seemed mundane, trivial, like a Burger King or Pizza Hut 
job is to kids today," Hallauer said. "But my boss made it 
interesting. He always talked about the purpose, the 
objective." That objective, of course, is benefitting corn 
growers around the globe.

In 1989, the breadth of Hallauer's impact was recognized with 
his earning one of science's pre-eminent awards: selection to 
the National Academy of Sciences. "That kind of recognition 
makes me sit back and realize how far we've come from the 
days when my father saved his own seed to plant the next 
year," Hallauer said. And it all started when a 14-year-old 
applied for a detasseling job.

_____
contact:  Internal Communications, (515) 294-3129
updated:  5-25-95