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CORVALLIS - Warren Kronstad, Oregon State University wheat breeder and geneticist, died in 2000, leaving a legacy of contributions to world agriculture. As a tribute to the scientist and teacher, the Oregon Wheat Foundation and OSU will dedicate the Warren E. Kronstad Memorial Conference Room in a ceremony to be held on the OSU campus as part of this year's Homecoming festivities.

Friends, students and colleagues are invited to join the dedication ceremony at 10 a.m. on Nov. 2 in room 122 of the OSU Crop Science building. Among the speakers will be Jim Peterson, the head of OSU's wheat breeding program, who will highlight the program and Kronstad's career; Thayne Dutson, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences; a representative from the Wheat Foundation; and members of Kronstad's family.

Visitors can view the new conference room during an open house, also on Nov. 2 from 9 to 11 a.m.

At Kronstad's retirement in 1999, Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug described his colleague as "one of the greatest wheat scientists and most effective teachers of this century." Their work contributed to the Green Revolution in cereal production in developing nations around the world.

During Kronstad's career the OSU wheat breeding program exchanged genetic material with foreign programs around the globe, cooperating with more than 125 countries in an effort to improve wheat varieties in Oregon and abroad.

He and collaborators developed the majority of wheat varieties currently grown in Oregon, including "Stephens," a soft white wheat variety still commercially important more than 20 years after its release.

Besides teaching thousands of U.S. students during his 40 years at OSU, Kronstad was the major professor for more than 100 graduate students from 27 countries. These international students returned to their homelands to lead cereal breeding programs or joined international research centers to develop high-yielding, disease-resistant cereal grains around the world.