On April 23rd and 24th, Dr. David Mies, a senior breeding expert, delivered a series of English lectures at the Peking University Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences. The lectures covered five topics: "Creation of Heterotic Pools", "Impact of the First Tester in Inbred Development", "Pillar Inbreds", "Event Selection/Lessons Learned", and "Changes in the Plant Breeding Process Over Decades". The lectures were conducted through a combination of offline and online conferences, as well as livestreaming via video platforms. More than 3,100 individuals tuned into the live broadcasts, resulting in a successful and impactful exchange of knowledge.

 

 

During his visit to Weifang City, Dr. David Mies was also invited to participate in the 2024 Weifang Kite Carnival and the 41st Weifang International Kite Festival. He engaged in exchanges and visits to the Xiashan Ecological Economic Development Zone, Qingzhou City, and Shouguang City, accompanied by the Deputy Director Xingping Zhang of the Institute. Dr. David Mies expressed high praise for the warm hospitality of Weifang, Shandong, and the agricultural technological advancements achieved by the Institute. He expressed a desire for further exchanges to deepen mutual understanding and explore potential areas of collaboration.

 

Dr. David Mies

Dr. Dave Mies studied Plant Breeding and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin Madison receiving his PhD in 1978. Dr. Dave Mies’s research was on epistasis which is still a subject of research today in the genomics era.

 

Dr. Dave Mies worked in corn breeding for NK/Syngenta for 35 years. Early efforts were in conventional plant breeding. In 1993, his work evolved and utilized transgenes. Dr. Dave Mies led all of the Field Efficacy, Breeding Conversion, Regulated Testing, and Performance Evaluation for the first successful transgene used in maize. BT11, incorporating the Cty1Ab protein from Bacillus thuringiensis for control of the European corn borer, was deregulated and commercialized in the USA in 1996. Using integrated pest management procedures, this transgene is still effective over 25 years later in the USA and Internationally.

 

Dr. Dave Mies has always had a strong international interest and was selected to lead the development of the Syngenta corn breeding program in China in 2005 -2011. In that period, Dr. Dave Mies developed a program with five research stations and over 40 research scientists. In 2011, Dr. Dave Mies started a new program leveraging Syngenta corn germplasm globally. This work allowed interaction with scientists and extensive travel in India, Thailand, Philippines, South America, Europe and North America.

 

Dr. Dave Mies “retired” in November 2013 and currently works as a plant breeding consultant globally. He has made three trips to Africa reviewing CGIAR programs on corn, sorghum, pearl millet, groundnuts, and dry beans. Dr. Dave Mies has traveled to India three times as a consultant and is still working as a consultant.

 

Dr. Dave Mies has been active in the American Society of Agronomy Golden Opportunity Scholar Program for over 5 years, mentoring college students interested in a career in plant sciences. He has chaired the applicant review process and worked to extend the program to reach more students in the US and Internationally.

 

Dr. Dave Mies has also supported college scholarship programs in agriculture and agronomy/plant breeding and genetics. He has worked with the Jonathon Baldwin Turner and other scholarship programs reviewing candidates. At the University of Illinois, he has been active in the recently completed Crop Sciences Turner Hall Renovation project and awarded the Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Alumni Award of Merit in 2018.