{"id":19863,"date":"2026-02-17T07:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?p=19863"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:57:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:57:16","slug":"gebisa-ejeta-to-be-inducted-into-national-inventors-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/Q1\/gebisa-ejeta-to-be-inducted-into-national-inventors-hall-of-fame","title":{"rendered":"Gebisa Ejeta to be inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 World-renowned plant geneticist and Purdue Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Agronomy Gebisa Ejeta, whose groundbreaking research and patent of grain sorghum has saved millions of people from starvation around the world, will be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame Class of 2026<\/a> on May 7 in Washington, D.C., in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ejeta, who is a Presidential Fellow and previously served as executive director of the Purdue Center for Global Food Security<\/a>, helped farmers increase production of the versatile and important cereal grain by developing drought- and disease-resistant hybrids and boosting crop yields. His work has improved food security for people across Africa and globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ejeta<\/a> is one of 15 innovators<\/a> who will be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1973, the NIHF has annually honored influential patent-holding innovators whose work has significantly advanced technology, society and the nation\u2019s welfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ejeta\u2019s outstanding contributions to the science of plant genetics and his impact on the world\u2019s ability to reliably produce resilient sorghum hybrids, along with his service as an advisor at the highest levels of science and national policy, earned him the World Food Prize in 2009 and the U.S. National Medal of Science<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born and raised in a small, rural community in west central Ethiopia, Ejeta earned his master\u2019s and PhD in plant breeding and genetics from Purdue. He served as a College of Agriculture faculty member and researcher from 1984 until his retirement in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ejeta\u2019s work is part of Purdue\u2019s One Health initiative<\/a>, a presidential initiative focused on solving complex challenges at the intersection of human, animal and plant health and delivering real-world impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2026 class also includes Frank S. Greene Jr.<\/a>, who received his master\u2019s degree in electrical engineering from Purdue in 1962. Greene will be posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He developed high-speed semiconductor memory systems, including the fastest microchip then available for the ILLIAC IV supercomputer. Greene died Dec. 26, 2009. He was 71.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Purdue University<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue\u2019s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap \u2014 including its integrated, comprehensive Indianapolis urban expansion; the Mitch Daniels School of Business; Purdue Computes; and the One Health initiative \u2014 at https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Media contact:<\/strong> Wes Mills, wemills@purdue.edu<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 World-renowned plant geneticist and Purdue Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Agronomy Gebisa Ejeta, whose groundbreaking research and patent of grain sorghum has saved millions of people from starvation around the world, will be inducted into the National<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":19861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"department":[],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[],"coauthors":[41],"class_list":["post-19863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-excellence","source-purdue-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19863"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19865,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19863\/revisions\/19865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19863"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=19863"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=19863"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=19863"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=19863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}