In recognition of his contributions to American agriculture, Charles M. Rick, arguably the world's leading authority on tomato genetics and a professor emeritus of vegetable crops at the University of California, Davis, will receive the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Award on Monday, Oct. 25. The public award ceremony and Rick's accompanying seminar on wild tomatoes will be held at 4 p.m. in the University Club on campus. Rick's research career spans more than 50 years and has taken him on genetic scavenger hunts to the far reaches of South America in search of wild-tomato varieties carrying important traits. In particular, he sought traits such as tolerance to drought, disease and insects that could be bred into domestic tomatoes. Today, many of the wild species and older cultivated tomatoes are extinct in their native habitats and remain accessible to plant breeders only because Rick had the foresight to collect and preserve them. "Charlie Rick's tireless devotion to science and agriculture, resulting in so many landmark contributions to genetic research and conservation, fully merit the prestigious von Humboldt Award," said Provost Larry Vanderhoef. "He has mentored a worldwide network of tomato geneticists and plant breeders in the process, and they are a legacy that will benefit generations to come." In 1990 the University of California established the Charles M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center, believed to be the largest and most diverse collection of tomato genetic material in the world. The center, on campus, contains more than 2,500 wild and mutant tomato strains and serves as a seed bank for researchers around the world who are trying to improve the quality and hardiness of tomatoes. Rick's collection has enabled him over the years to "map" the location of many of the genes on the tomato's 12 chromosomes. Growers, seed producers and food processors repeatedly attest that the information and the seeds provided by Rick are the basis on which much of the worldwide tomato industry is founded. His thorough genetic characterization of the tomato has made the species a preferred model system for molecular genetic studies, positioning the tomato to be the first genetically engineered food product to reach the consumer market. After earning his doctoral degree in genetics from Harvard University, Rick joined the UC Davis faculty in 1940. He was first assigned to do research on asparagus, but at a senior professor's suggestion, Rick began to investigate the cause of unfruitfulness in certain tomato plants. He discovered the plants suffered from a variety of genetic problems. His research on the genetic abnormalities that made the flowers of those plants infertile led to a program that ultimately resulted in the construction of a "linkage map" revealing positions of different mutants or variable genes on the tomato's chromosomes. In 1973 Rick was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors for scientists in the United States. Although officially retired, he maintains an active research program. He and colleagues recently succeeded in sexually transferring genes from distantly related plant species into the tomato. This breakthrough will enable researchers to introduce an entire new range of valuable agronomic traits into the cultivated tomato. Named after the 19th century German naturalist and geographer, the $10,000 Alexander von Humboldt award has been presented annually since 1975 to one individual who is considered to have made the most significant contribution to American agriculture during the previous five years. Rick is the 19th recipient of the award, which is presented by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, based both in Germany and the United States, and funded by the Alfred Toepfer Co., a German trading firm. In addition to the von Humboldt Award, Rick has received the Merit Award from the Botanical Society, the Frank N. Meyer Medal from the American Genetics Association, the Genetic and Plant Breeding Award from the National Council of Commercial Plant Breeders and the Distinguished Economic Botanist Award from the Society of Economic Botany.