Crop Science Awards and Recognition

Society Awards

Articles published during the preceding two years are considered for the current year’s award (e.g., articles from 2018 and 2019 are considered for the 2020 award). In general, the selection is based on evaluation of how the article has advanced knowledge in the profession, the effectiveness of communication, originality, and impact.

2022 CSSA Society Award Winner

"Diversity and heterotic patterns in North American proprietary maize germplasm" authored by Michael R. White, Mark A. Mikel, Natalia de Leon, and Shawn M. Kaeppler. Read the 2022 CSSA Society Award Winner now.

For past winners, please see this collection on our Online Library.

For a list of all past Outstanding Papers of the Year across all journals and divisions, please see our Outstanding Papers of the Year virtual issue.

Crop Science Division Awards

Most CSSA Divisions award outstanding papers annually from papers published in Crop Science. Division awards are chosen from all articles published in the preceding calendar year, with selection based on appropriate scientific merit in their topic areas.

2022 Crop Science Crop Breeding and Genetics (C-01) Winners

"Using environmental similarities to design training sets for genomewide selection" authored by Jeffrey L. Neyhart, Lucía Gutiérrez, and Kevin P. Smith. Read the Crop Breeding and Genetics (C-01) Division Award Winner now.

"High throughput can produce better decisions than high accuracy when phenotyping plant populations" authored by Holly M. Lane and Seth C. Murray. Read the Crop Breeding and Genetics (C-01) Division Award Winner now.

"Comparative study of transgenic and nontransgenic cotton" authored by Linghe Zeng, Jixiang Wu, Fred M. Bourland, B. Todd Campbell, Jane K. Dever, Steve Hague, Gerald O. Myers, et al. Read the Crop Breeding and Genetics (C-01) Division Award Winner now.

"An analysis of simulated yield data for pepper shows how genotype × environment interaction in yield can be understood in terms of yield components and their QTLs" authored by Paolo C. Rodrigues, Ep Heuvelink, Leo F.M. Marcelis, Scott C. Chapman, and Fred A. van Eeuwijk. Read the Crop Breeding and Genetics (C-01) Division Award Winner now.

"Effect of missing values in multi-environmental trials on variance component estimates" authored by Jens Hartung and Hans-Peter Piepho. Read the Crop Breeding and Genetics (C-01) Division Award Winner now.

2022 Crop Science Crop Breeding and Genetics (C-01) Honorable Mentions

"Breeding gain from exploitation of regional adaptation: An alfalfa case study" authored by Paolo Annicchiarico. Read the Crop Breeding and Genetics (C-01) Division Award Honorable Mention now.

"Upgrading a maize breeding program via two-cycle genomewide selection: Same cost, same or less time, and larger gains" authored by Rex Bernardo. Read the Crop Breeding and Genetics (C-01) Division Award Honorable Mention now.

"Speed breeding and early panicle harvest accelerates oat (Avena sativa L.) breeding cycles" authored by Pablo González-Barrios, Madhav Bhatta, Madalene Halley, Pablo Sandro, and Lucía Gutiérrez. Read the Crop Breeding and Genetics (C-01) Division Award Honorable Mention now.

"Predictive breeding in maize during the last 90 years" authored by Rex Bernardo. Read the Crop Breeding and Genetics (C-01) Division Award Honorable Mention now.

"Improvement of key agronomical traits in soybean through genomic prediction of superior crosses" authored by Martine Jean, Elroy Cober, Louise O'Donoughue, Istvan Rajcan, and François Belzile. Read the Crop Breeding and Genetics (C-01) Division Award Honorable Mention now.

2022 Crop Science Crop Physiology and Metabolism (C-02) Winners

"Effects of elevated CO2 and warmer temperature on early season field-grown cotton in high-input systems" authored by Katrina J. Broughton, Michael P. Bange, Jeffrey T. Baker, Charles Yates, Daniel K.Y. Tan, David T. Tissue, Paxton Payton. Read the Crop Physiology and Metabolism (C-02) Division Award Winner now.

2022 Crop Science Crop Ecology, Management, and Quality (C-03) Winners

"Genotype-specific nitrogen uptake dynamics and fertilizer management explain contrasting wheat protein concentration" authored by Romulo P. Lollato, Brent R. Jaenisch, and Sergio R. Silva. Read the Crop Ecology, Management, and Quality (C-03) Division Award Winner now.

"Effect of tillers on corn yield: Exploring trait plasticity potential in unpredictable environments" authored by Rachel L. Veenstra, Carlos D. Messina, Dan Berning, Lucas A. Haag, Paul Carter, Trevor J. Hefley, P.V. Vara Prasad, et al. Read the Crop Ecology, Management, and Quality (C-03) Division Award Winner now.

"Maximizing soybean yield by understanding planting date, maturity group, and seeding rate interactions in North Carolina" authored by Tristan C. Morris, Rachel A. Vann, Josh Heitman, Guy D. Collins, Ryan W. Heiniger. Read the Crop Ecology, Management, and Quality (C-03) Division Award Winner now.

2022 Crop Science Seed Physiology, Production, & Technology (C-04) Winners

"Quantitative trait locus mapping for resistance to heat-induced seed degradation and low seed phytic acid in soybean" authored by Jason D. Gillman, Kranthi Chebrolu, and James R. Smith. Read the Seed Physiology, Production, & Technology (C-04) Division Award Winner now.

2022 Crop Science Turfgrass Science (C-05) Winners

"Global DNA methylation predicts epigenetic reprogramming and transgenerational plasticity in Poa annua L." authored by Christopher W. Benson, Qing Mao, David R. Huff. Read the Turfgrass Science (C-05) Division Award Winner now.

2021 Crop Science Forage and Grazinglands (C-06) Winners

"Water footprint, herbage and livestock responses for nitrogen-fertilized grass-legume grazing systems" authored by David Mirabedini Jaramillo, José C.B. Dubeux, Lynn E. Sollenberger, Joao M.B. Vendramini, Cheryl Mackowiak, Nicolas DiLorenzo, Liza Garcia, et al. Read the Forage and Grazinglands (C-06) Division Award Winner now.

"Fallow replacement cover crops in a semi-arid High Plains cropping system" authored by Johnathon D. Holman, Augustine K. Obour, and Yared Assefa. Read the Forage and Grazinglands (C-06) Division Award Winner now.

"Enzymatic and biochemical alterations in relation to lignin deposition at different growth stages of tall fescue" authored by Siddhartha Singh, Rajan Katoch, and Neelam Sharma. Read the Forage and Grazinglands (C-06) Division Award Winner now.

2022 Crop Science Genomics, Molecular Genetics, and Biotechnology (C-07) Winners

"Rsg1.a3: A new allele conferring unique resistance to greenbug Biotype H at the Rsg1 locus in Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum" authored by Xiangyang Xu, Dolores W. Mornhinweg, Guihua Bai, Brian Steffenson, Ruolin Bian, Genqiao Li, and Amy Bernardo. Read the Genomics, Molecular Genetics, and Biotechnology (C-07) Division Award Winner now.

2022 Crop Science Plant Genetic Resources (C-08) Winners

"Seedbank seeds for the study of environmentally induced transgenerational epigenetic variability: A case study of barley" authored by Tommaso Martinelli, Floriana Gavazzi, Iride Mascheretti, Dario Panzeri, Andreas Börner, Massimiliano Lauria. Read the Plant Genetic Resources (C-08) Division Award Winner now.

"Characterization and pre-breeding of diverse alfalfa wild relatives originating from drought-stressed environments" authored by Alan W. Humphries, Carlos Ovalle, Steve Hughes, Alejandro del Pozo, Luis Inostroza, Viviana Barahona, Linqing Yu, et al. Read the Plant Genetic Resources (C-08) Division Award Winner now.

"A global resource for exploring and exploiting genetic variation in sorghum crop wild relatives" authored by Emma S. Mace, Alan W. Cruickshank, Yongfu Tao, Colleen H. Hunt, David R. Jordan. Read the Plant Genetic Resources (C-08) Division Award Winner now.

2022 Crop Science Crops for Nutrition and Health (C-09) Winners

"The potential to breed a low-protein maize for protein-restricted diets" authored by Matthew S. Woore, Sherry A. Flint-Garcia, James B. Holland. Read the Plant Genetic Resources (C-08) Division Award Winner now.

To see past Outstanding Paper winners, please see this collection on our Online Library.

Editor's Citation for Excellence Awards

For more than 10 years, the peer-reviewed journals published by ASA, CSSA, and SSSA have annually awarded associate editors and peer reviewers for outstanding performance. Each Editorial Board recognizes individuals for excellence in performing their work either as a reviewer or associate editor. The recognition is based on their efforts in establishing a quality review process, for timely and professional manuscript editing, and for overall excellence in managing a professional review process. Each recipient receives a certificate and an award from the journal.

2021 Editor’s Citation for Excellence Award for Outstanding Service – Associate Editor

Miguel Castillo, David Fang, Leah McHale, Roxana Savin, Sivakumar Sukumaran, Weikai Yan

2021 Editor’s Citation for Excellence Award for Outstanding Service – Reviewer

William "Lee" Berndt, Filippo Guzzon, Min Huang, Krishna Katuwal, Ntombokulunga Mbuma, Hans-Peter Piepho

For past winners, please see a full list here.