Texas Tech Professor Joins Oldest Scientific Community in Existence

Lubbock gets a taste of royalty after Director of the Institute of Genomics for Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance (IGCAST) and Professor of Plant Genomics Luis Rafael Herrera-Estrella has been named a Fellow of the UK's Royal Society.

What is the Royal Society?

No, the Royal Society is not a posh book club or secret organization like the illuminati. Instead, their website defines them as "the independent scientific academy of the UK, dedicated to promoting excellence in science for the benefit of humanity."

It's also the oldest scientific academy in the world's existence, having been established in November of 1660 in London. Some notable Fellows during the early years of the academy include John Locke, Isaac Newton, and even Albert Einstein.

If you want to sound cool to your friends, you can recite the Royal Society's motto which was first adopted back in 1662: 'Nullius in verba.' This is Latin for 'take nobody's word for it.'

New Fellow Luis Rafael Herrera-Estrella

Texas Tech Professor Herrera-Estrella first arrived at the university in 2019 when he started IGCAST. His mission for the institute is to understand how plants adapt to extremes in their environments such as temperatures or droughts.

Check out this video from the university to see who Professor Herrera-Estrella really is:

In fact, just last year, Herrera-Estrella and the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources showcased a new machine that can accurately differentiate certain physical traits in plant crops to assist with breeding new seed varieties.

Other accomplishments made by Herrera-Estrella include the following:

• Named one of Scientific American's 100 Most Influential People in Biotechnology 
• Member of the National Academy of Sciences
• Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors
• Elected to the European Molecular Biology Organization

You can read more about everything that Professor Herrera-Estrella has done for the scientific community on the TTU webpage.

Three cheers for Texas Tech for continuing to foster excellence both in front of and behind the desk!