The 1st GCHERA World Agriculture Prize Award Ceremony was held in Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU) of China on October 20, 2013. The Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for Agricultural and Life Sciences (GCHERA) awarded the World Agriculture Prize 2013 to Professor Dr. Ronnie Coffman, an international plant breeder at Cornell University, in recognition of his “career at Cornell University in capacity building in crop improvement, promoting innovative global partnerships and being an inspiration to generations of young students and researchers at Cornell and worldwide”.ZUO Wei, the Chancellor of NAU, chaired the 1st GCHERA World Agriculture Prize Award Ceremony.Zhou Guanghong, the Board member of GCHERA and the President of Nanjing Agricultural University made a welcome speech in the Ceremony & awarded the winner’s triumph. The President of GCHERA, Philippe CHOQUET announced Professor Dr. Ronnie Coffman, an international plant breeder at Cornell University, won the Prize & bestows the winner’s certificate. Ian Maw, the Vice president of GCHERA introduced the winner’s academic achievement. GCHERA Coordinator Simon B Heath introduced GCHERA, the purpose of GCHERA World dialogue and WAP evaluation system. At the end of the Ceremony, the Vice Minster of MOA & the Chairman of Chinese Association of Agricultural Science Societies (CAASS), ZHANG Taolin congratulated Dr. Ronnie Coffman and made a speech.

The GCHERA laureate 2013 address was carried out after the ceremony and Ronnie Coffman presented a speech titled with Universities as Entrepreneurs for Sustainable Rural Development. SHEN Qirong, the Vice president of NAU chaired the address.

After the ceremony, a press conference was held on the Jingling conference hall of NAU.

Opening words by ZUO Wei (the Chancellor of NAU)  

Philippe CHOQUET (the President of GCHERA) bestows the certificate of winner  to Ronnie Coffman(left)

ZHOU Guanghong (the President of NAU) awards the winner Ronnie Coffman(left)’s triumph

ZHANG Taolin (Vice Minister of MOA & the Chairman of CAASS)’s speech

The Vice President of GCHERA, Ian Maw states the winner’s achievements

GCHERA Coordinator/ ICA Secretary General Simon B Heath’s introduction on the evaluation procession

An academic report by the winner Ronnie Coffman

The Press Conference of GCHERA WAP 2013

The ceremony attracted wide attention. Over 100 representatives from more than 50 universities all over the world participated the GCHERA WAP 2013 aware ceremony, such as University of California Davis, Massey University, Aarhus University, the University of Sydney, University of Alberta, China Agricultural University, Beijing forestry University, Northwest A&F University, Beijing Forestry University and Jilin University, etc. 

Acknowledge: All the pictures are provided by News Agency of NAU