Writer: Kathleen Davis Phillips, (979) 845-2872, ka-phillips@tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Ed Runge, (979) 845-3041
COLLEGE STATION — Dr. Henry M. “Hank” Beachell of Pearland, a renowned rice agronomist and winner of the 1996 World Food Prize, has given more than $27,800 to Texas A&M University for the establishment of a scholarship in his name.
The Henry M. Beachell Endowed Scholarship will be awarded annually to one or more students in the Texas A&M University department of soil and crop sciences. Special consideration will be given to those students who demonstrate leadership and a desire to make a positive contribution to the betterment of their field and mankind.
Beachell is credited with finding and improving a rice variety that is used as a genetic base for most of today’s rice varieties. His role in promoting the variety led to him being dubbed by the industry as the person most responsible for the “Green Revolution” in rice.
He was a joint employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station — part of the Texas A&M University System — and worked at the Beaumont station from 1932 until 1963. While there, he created and helped introduce nine rice varieties which eventually accounted for more than 90 percent of U.S. long-grain rice production.
During that time, he also took part in research and teaching tours of rice production areas in India, Central America and South America.
After retiring from the Beaumont station in 1963, he accepted a position at the rice institute in the Philippines. That same year, while going through the institute’s experimental plots seeking a sturdy rice plant that would respond well to fertilizer and mature early, he helped select the rice that eventually became the IR8 rice variety.
After further development, IR8 was released in 1966 and set yield records ranging from 6 tons to 8 tons of grain per hectare on experimental fields in several Asian countries, more than doubling previous yields.
Over the next two decades, Beachell traveled widely to promote that variety and others resulting from the institute’s work. He also continued research to improve the rice, including making it more resistant to pests and adaptable to various growing conditions as well as cooking and taste preferences.
Now 90, Beachell still consults for the rice industry through Rice-Tec, an Alvin company that is the only commercial hybrid rice breeding program in the United States.
He holds degrees from the University of Nebraska and Kansas State University.
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