Dedication

In 1951, Dr. Matsuo was appointed as professor of plant breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tokyo. He trained numerous students in genetics and breeding, and led a team to conduct Rice Adaptation Experiment of the International Biological Program. He also devoted himself to mutation breeding, and achieved significant results. He initiated the establishment of Gamma Field for the development of mutation research.

Dr. Matsuo is one of the outstanding scientists in plant breeding and genetics. In 1990, series of books entitled "Science of Rice Plant" were published under his editorship. These consist of three volumes, morphology (579 pp), physiology (970 pp), and genetics (795 pp), each comprising chapters by a number of authors,

He served as president of Japanese Society of Breeding and of SABRAO, and as co-chairman of Rice Genetics Cooperative, and made significant contributions nationally and internationally to the development of breeding science. (Y. Futsuhara)

Mr. Kan-Sheng Cheng was born at Anlu, Hubei Province, China in March 1908. He graduated from College of Agriculture with major in Agronomy, Beijing University in 1931. After graduation, he served as a research assistant in his alma mater for 2 years. From 1933 to 1947, he worked in several research organizations such as Guangxi Agr. Exp. Station, Guangxi Agr. College, Hubei Agr. Improvement Institute, Kaiyuan Cotton Exp. Station (Yunnan) and Hubei Agr. College. He served as professor of Hubei Agr. College, head of Kaiyuan Cotton Station, and director of Yunnan Academy of Agr. Sciences.

Mr. Cheng started working on rice in 1950 and studied the genetic diversity and ecological conditions under which rice is grown in Yunnan. He was especially interested in the evolution and differentiation of cultivated rice and published extensively on this subject. He adopted a quantitative measure to differentiate between Hsien (Indica) and Keng (Japonica) types and established a classification system based on six morphological characters. He classified rice varieties into four groups; H (Hsien), H' (Hsien cline), K (Keng) and K' (Keng cline) and compared his system of classification with the groupings based on isozyme studies and showed that good agreement existed between two systems of classifying rice varieties. His studies led him to believe that rices of South Asia and East Asia originated in different centers and Japonica (Keng) rices differentiated directly from a common wild rice. (H. I. Oka)