Specht receives first Haskins professorship

James Specht, professor of agronomy and horticulture, is the first recipient of the Haskins Professorship in Plant Genetics. The professorship was established by Francis and Dorothy Haskins. Francis Haskins is a professor emeritus at UNL.
James Specht, professor of agronomy and horticulture, is the first recipient of the Haskins Professorship in Plant Genetics. The professorship was established by Francis and Dorothy Haskins. Francis Haskins is a professor emeritus at UNL.

A retired UNL professor is supporting others who follow in his footsteps and who show promise as plant geneticists.

Francis Haskins, professor emeritus, spent 35 years as a professor and researcher in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. A Nebraska native, he also obtained two degrees here, the first being a bachelor's in agriculture in 1943.

Haskins and his wife, Dorothy, have established a permanently endowed professorship fund at the University of Nebraska Foundation. The fund will generate an annual stipend for research and program support and is intended to further research in plant genetics.

James Specht is the first recipient of the new Haskins Professorship in Plant Genetics, the University of Nebraska Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources announced.

Because of his ties to Nebraska and longtime career, Haskins said he wanted to show his gratitude by contributing back to the university.

"I feel a great amount of indebtedness to the University of Nebraska," said Haskins, who retired in 1988. "I was always so grateful for the endowed professorship awarded to me, and I wanted to give back in some way after enjoying my tenure here."

Specht said he's had a passion for plant science for most of his life. As a student himself at NU, he said it was Haskins and professor Herman Gorz who helped encouraged his enthusiasm and interest in studying plants.

"I was able to observe their research experiments in their lab, and they encouraged me to conduct some small-scale experimentation involving various sweet clover species," Specht said. "That exposure to scientific experimentation got me hooked on science. I greatly admire them both and am especially honored to have received the Francis and Dorothy Haskins Professorship."

Specht joined the university faculty in 1974 as a soybean physiologist and geneticist to study soybean yield response to drought and water irrigation.

Early in his career, he helped Nebraska soybean growers by sharing information about proper irrigation for optimized crop yield and how irrigated soybean production could be more productive and more profitable. He has also served on research teams funded by the United Soybean Board that led to better understanding of the soybean plant and how genetics may be used to make plants more tolerant of drought.

Specht teaches two graduate courses, one in crop physiology emphasizing drought stress and another in crop molecular improvement emphasizing genomics, markers and linkage mapping.

Specht received a bachelor of science in agronomy and a doctorate degree in genetics from the University of Nebraska. Between those degrees, he served the U.S. Army in Vietnam before obtaining a master's degree in agronomy at the University of Illinois.

Francis Haskins joined the University of Nebraska faculty in 1953 to help establish the foundation for agronomy teaching and research programs in cytogenetics (study of the structure and function of cells), quantitative genetics and biochemical genetics. Throughout his career, he taught advanced genetics, including physiological genetics, and contributed to agriculture in Nebraska and the country in various ways. He trained many students who are now respected scientists with the USDA, agriculture industry and universities across the country.

In recognition of his academic leadership, Haskins was named the George Holmes Professor of Agronomy in 1967 and received numerous other awards. He obtained a doctorate at the California Institute of Technology in 1951 after graduating from the University of Nebraska in 1943 and 1948.

The University of Nebraska Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization raising private gifts to support the University of Nebraska for 74 years. For more information, go to http://www.nufoundation.org.

- Robb Crouch, NU Foundation