Charles Rick, an "Indiana Jones" of tomato genetics research and emeritus professor at UC Davis, will receive the prestigious $10,000 Alexander von Humboldt Award on Monday, Oct. 25, in recognition of his contributions to American agriculture. 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. Arguably the world's leading authority on tomato genetics, Rick has a research career in the UC Davis vegetable crops department that spans more than 50 years. His work has taken him on genetic scavenger hunts to the far reaches of South America in search of wild tomato varieties carrying important traits that could be bred into domestic tomatoes. Today, many of the wild species and older cultivated tomatoes are extinct in their native habitats and their seeds remain accessible to plant breeders only through the Charles M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center at UC Davis.