Ronald Cantrell

Ronald P. Cantrell was an American plant breeder who served as the eighth Director General of the International Rice Research Institute, IRRI, from 1998 to 2004. Born in Texas, he earned a doctorate in plant genetics and breeding from Purdue University in 1970, then worked as a plant breeder for Cargill before returning to Purdue as a professor of agronomy until 1982. He led Purdue's Farming Systems Unit in Upper Volta in West Africa for two years, spent six years as director of the maize program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, CIMMYT, and headed the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University from 1990 until joining IRRI. As director general he is credited with broadening the scientific tools and technologies, including genomics, available to IRRI's rice breeders, and with stabilizing the institute's management after a difficult period, providing a steadier basis for its research. He stepped down in 2004 and died at the age of 81.