A microbiologist at the University of California, Davis, whose discovery of a disease-resistance gene in rice may help address global hunger problems, has been awarded a 1999 Guggenheim Fellowship. Pamela Ronald, an associate professor of plant pathology, joins 178 other artists, scholars and scientists nationwide receiving the awards. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation's fellowship program provides recipients with the opportunity to freely pursue their work in the manner they choose for six to 12 months. Fellows in the annual competition are selected on the basis of distinguished past achievements and exceptional promise for future accomplishments. More than $6 million was awarded this year to fund the fellowships. The $33,000 Guggenheim Fellowship will enable Ronald to spend several months next year in Toulouse, France, at the National Center for Scientific Research's National Institute of Agronomic Research. She will work with microbiologist Christian Boucher in the institute's Laboratory of Plant Microbe Interactions, looking at the molecular components that mediate interactions between plants and bacteria that cause plant diseases. Ronald joined the UC Davis faculty in 1992. She is a molecular biologist whose research focuses on the genetic basis of disease resistance in rice, the staple food for more than half the world's population. In 1995, Ronald and colleagues became the first research team to genetically engineer disease resistance in rice. Two years ago, she initiated a graduate education fund at UC Davis that is designed to compensate developing nations for valuable genes obtained from their native plants and animals. Money for the fund will be drawn from industry contributions and future patent royalties accruing to UC Davis from patenting of UC genes such as the rice disease-resistance gene that Ronald's laboratory isolated and cloned. Ronald also is the founding chief executive officer of a new biotechnology company called Tellus Genetics Inc., recently established in Davis to conduct research on genes for improving crops through both genetic engineering and traditional methods. She and colleagues hope the firm's work will help reduce the use of agricultural pesticides and fungicides. During the past 75 years, the Guggenheim Foundation has granted more than $185 million in fellowships to nearly 15,000 individuals. More information about the foundation and its fellowship program may be found at the Web site http://www.gf.org.