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.<\/p>\n
What is the Royal Society?<\/p>\n
No, the Royal Society is not a posh book club or secret organization like the illuminati. Instead, their website defines<\/a> them as “the independent scientific academy of the UK, dedicated to promoting excellence in science for the benefit of humanity.”<\/p>\n Read More:\u00a0Is Clay The Ultimate Secret To Stopping Severe Blood Loss Fast?<\/a><\/p>\n 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<\/a>, Isaac Newton<\/a>, and even Albert Einstein.<\/p>\n If you want to sound cool to your friends, you can recite the Royal Society’s motto<\/a> which was first adopted back in 1662: ‘Nullius in verba.’ This is Latin for ‘take nobody’s word for it.’<\/p>\n New Fellow Luis Rafael Herrera-Estrella<\/p>\n Texas Tech Professor Herrera-Estrella first arrived<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Check out this video from the university<\/a> to\u00a0see who\u00a0Professor Herrera-Estrella really is:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In fact, just last year, Herrera-Estrella and the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources showcased a new machine <\/a>that can accurately differentiate certain physical traits in plant crops to assist with breeding new seed varieties.<\/p>\n Other accomplishments made by Herrera-Estrella include the following:<\/p>\n