J. H. Bouton<sup>1,*

1</sup>Forage Improvement Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, 2510 Sam Noble Parkway, Ardmore, O

^*Joe Bouton was born in March 1948 and grew up in Washington County, Mississippi, USA, where his family farmed cotton and soybeans. He completed his BSc degree in agronomy from Mississippi State University, and the MSc and PhD degrees in plant breeding from the University of Florida. Joe was a Professor at the University of Georgia (UGA) for 27 years and is currently an Emeritus Professor at UGA. He then became the Founding Director, Forage Improvement Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation and is now a Senior Professor at Noble. His breeding program develops forage and bioenergy cultivars with 11 cultivars currently in commercial production, but is best known for the release of ‘Alfagraze’ lucerne, “Jesup MaxQ” tall fescue (a.k.a. MaxP), and ‘Durana’ white clover. Joe has published over 150 peer reviewed papers and book chapters. His awards include the Richard R. Hill Achievement Award by the North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference in 1994, Man of the Year in Service to Southeastern Agriculture by Progressive Farmer Magazine in 1995, a Creative Research Medal by UGA in 2002, the Carl Sprengel Research Award by the American Society of Agronomy in 2003, and the Massengale Lecturer by the Crop Science Society of America in 2010.