James Hill Craddock, the Robert M. Davenport Professor in Biology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, will visit West Virginia University to present a seminar, “American Chestnut: The Archetypal Tree” at 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10, in 1021 South Agricultural Sciences on WVU’s Evansdale Campus.

Craddock is a noted horticulturalist and plant breeder, having worked on the development of new dogwood cultivars for resistance to dogwood anthracnose disease. He has worked on the restoration of the American chestnut for nearly 20 years. His current research focuses on the reforestation of the species to the Appalachian forest ecosystem and the establishment of a commercial chestnut industry in Tennessee.

“I have been a gardener since I can remember,” Craddock said. “I grew my first chestnut tree from a seed I planted when I was 15 years old, and I am still a chestnut enthusiast.”

Craddock is part of a long-running collaborative effort to save the American chestnut from extinction. The multi-state team of scholars, which includes researchers from WVU’s Division of Plant and Soil Sciences in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, was honored for excellence by the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities in 2010.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

-WVU-

dw/10/05/11

CONTACT: David Welsh, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
304-293-2394, dwelsh@wvu.edu

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