Beside Dermot Coyne's desk hangs a black and white photo of the man he calls his academic grandfather.

Coyne, longtime University of Nebraska vegetable breeder and geneticist, keenly understands the generational connections of science. Pictured is R.A. Emerson, dry bean breeder at Nebraska from 1899 to 1914, when Cornell University hired him. Emerson became a renowned geneticist whose graduate students included Noble Laureates George Beadle, a Nebraska native, and Barbara McClintock. A half century later, Coyne earned his doctorate in plant breeding at Cornell guided by H.M. Munger, Emerson's last graduate student.

Much of Coyne's philosophy about research and working with graduate students came from Munger, whose attitudes Emerson shaped. In 1961, three years after earning his doctorate, Coyne followed in Emerson's footsteps, joining NU's horticulture department for what was to be a one-year job.

Forty years later, reflecting on his distinguished career, Coyne counts his 40 graduate students – his scientific progeny – among his greatest rewards and contributions.

"There's a great multiplier effect with graduate students and great pleasure in seeing them develop, mature and accomplish great things in their careers," he said.

Coyne is internationally recognized for his research on disease resistance in dry beans. He developed 14 great northern and pinto varieties, many of which have been widely grown in Nebraska and beyond. Seeing his work benefit people is particularly satisfying.

"Some people who are very good scientists are motivated by a desire to discover perse," he said. "I'm motivated by discovery that will improve people's welfare."

That motivation has paid off. Concentrating on bacterial diseases, he identified genes for resistance, especially to bacterial diseases, bred the first great northern and pinto varieties resistant to multiple diseases and identified molecular markers for resistance. His disease-resistant germplasm is incorporated into major U.S. dry bean varieties. His germplasm long has been the world's major source of common bacterial blight resistance.

Internationally, Coyne and NU Plant Pathologist Jim Steadman worked with local scientists to avert food shortages in the Dominican Republic by finding a way to control a virus that devastated the country's dry beans, a staple food for the poor. Thanks to the team's strategy and their improved bean varieties, the country now is self-sufficient in bean production.

"As a plant breeder, you can help but there are other factors such as politics and money that determine who has food and who doesn't," he said. "That's why people sometimes go hungry in the midst of abundance."

Coyne officially retired as the George Holmes distinguished university professor of agronomy and horticulture June 30 but is working part-time through year's end. If he had it to do over, Coyne says he'd again be a plant breeder. If he were starting today, he'd study food plants that could prevent human disease.

He sees this as a promising area where land-grant scientists could contribute significantly to society.

Agricultural research and plant breeding are "in a period of enormous change," Coyne said.

Biotechnology is changing plant breeding and public plant breeders' role. Private companies are increasingly involved in developing new crop varieties, Coyne said, leaving public breeders to concentrate on niche crops and focus increasingly on basic research in functional genetics, or understanding how genes function.

Plant breeders have opportunities to discover useful genes in wild plant species and, thanks to molecular genetics, transfer them into crops.

"I see a combination of classical and molecular breeding going hand-in-hand to use our germplasm more effectively, especially wild germplasm," Coyne said.

With the growing emphasis on genomics and basic research, Coyne wonders whether future public breeders will get to turn their discoveries into new varieties.

"I seem to have a need and desire to create the variety. That's my fulfillment. Maybe others will find it elsewhere."

– Vicki Miller

R.A. Emerson

International collaboration has been a hallmark of Coyne's career. Here he rides a burro up a mountain in the Dominican Republic to inspect test plots.

Dermot Coyne, longtime NU dry edible bean breeder and geneticist, stands in a dry bean test plot near Scottsbluff in 1991. Coyne says seeing his research benefit people is his greatest satisfaction.