FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Fred Bourland, who has released 98 cotton germplasm lines and eight cotton cultivars, is the guest speaker for Monday's Fall Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Seminar Series.

His lecture is "Some Perspectives from 50 Years of Cotton Breeding" at 3:30 p.m. today in Plant Science Building Room 009. Due to social distancing requirements, only 25 people will be allowed in the room with lab students encouraged to attend, but the lecture is also available on Zoom here (password 648478).

Bourland is a member of the CSES faculty and since 1988 has been responsible for the annual Arkansas Cotton Variety Test. He is a researcher and scientist with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the U of A System Division of Agriculture, and has been involved in developing several selection techniques, establishing a cotton management program (COTMAN) and studying the inheritance of several traits. He has authored or co-authored 110 refereed publications and 29 book chapters, and edited the annual Summaries of Arkansas Cotton Research since 2016.

Bourland, who earned his bachelor's (crop science) and master's degrees (plant breeding) from the U of A, was named the International Cotton Advisory Committee International Cotton Researcher of the Year in 2010, and to the Cotton Research and Promotion Program Hall of Fame in 2015.

He earned his Ph.D. in genetics from Texas A&M University in 1978, and taught at Mississippi State University before returning to the U of A in 1988. In 1997, he transferred to the Northeast Research and Extension Center.

To attend the Zoom version via phone, call 646-558-8656 or 301-715-8592 (meeting ID: 922 142 2057).

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture. For more information about Bumpers College, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter at @BumpersCollege and Instagram at BumpersCollege.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2.7 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.