On Sunday, Sept. 28, Colorado State University welcomed José R. Dinneny as the distinguished speaker for the 22nd annual Thornton-Massa Lecture Series. 

The Lecture Series honors the late Emil Massa and Bruce and Mildred Thornton. 

Massa was a well-known physician based out of Denver whose passion for plant genetics, breeding and biodiversity led him to support the Denver Botanic Garden, the People Park program and the Lecture Series.

The Thorntons, similarly passionate in botany, both worked at Colorado Seed Laboratory. Mildred Thornton earned her undergraduate degree in seed taxonomy in 1928 from Colorado State University. Bruce was a faculty member at the university and a member of the Agriculture Experiment Station. Bruce went on to become head of the Colorado Seed Laboratory. After his retirement in 1961, Mildred took over the laboratory. 

Decades later, the Thornton-Massa Lecture Series continues its devotion to biotechnology and plant breeding. 

Dinneny, a professor of biology at Stanford University, presented this year’s lecture with a focus on reimagining agriculture in times of population growth and decline. 

“In 50 years, we’ll have to support many more people on this planet,” Dinneny said. “And this challenge of how we’re going to grow enough food to support our population is something that I know a lot of plant biologists think about on a daily basis.”

There have been previous innovations like the Haber-Bosch process developed in 1906. Dinneny said the process involves synthesizing ammonia from chemicals like nitrogen and hydrogen. This method is essential for producing synthetic fertilizers, which Dinneny said are responsible for saving over “5 million people on this planet, more than any other biomedical innovation.”

After this innovation, however, over-fertilization was a common problem in many early twentieth-century croplands. This would cause plants to grow too tall and too fast, leading to crops falling over and, thus, decreasing yield.

Consequently, real population growth as a result of agricultural innovations was not seen until the 1960s, when advances were made to solve the issue of over-fertilizing. 

Dinneny outlined the Borlaug Hypothesis, which involves breeding dwarf variants of crops, leading to more efficient cultivation without fear of damage when fertilized. This discovery, along with the development of artificial fertilizer, revolutionized the way farmers feed the world. 

In 2025, though, Dinneny and many other plant biologists have found themselves trying to feed an even bigger population than the one that erupted in the 1960s.

“So what we need is a green revolution. … We have a lot of challenges in our world, but this is perhaps the biggest we’re going to face.” –José R. Dinneny, Stanford University biology professor

“Population has increased across a number of different regions on this planet, … but the amount of land that’s used in agriculture has not,” Dinneny said. 

As more wild lands are developed for farming, more forests, ecosystems and wildlife will be put in danger. Dinneny stressed this as a major issue, especially when coupled with global warming and contamination of waterways, both prominent environmental issues. Dinneny noted improving crops as a notable starting point.

“Breeders have been doing this for generations now,” Dinneny said. He then supposed that plant breeders select desirable traits based on what is physically observed. 

Continuing, Dinneny countered that “what they’re often not looking at is what’s below ground.” 

Dinneny suggested to the audience that roots were of utmost importance when devising crop improvements.

“They perform a lot of services that are at the heart of what makes the plant efficient at taking up resources,” Dinneny said.

To make the studying of root systems easier, Dinneney and his colleagues developed a system called GLO-Roots, which stands for Growth and Luminescence Observatory for Roots. Described as an “ant farm for roots,” this process involves observing a plant’s root system through a 2D glass case. This makes the observation process easier. 

However, the technology does not stop there, as Dinneney then described the development of a chemically-motivated imaging system that helps to determine root development and how that will affect plants.

Going further, ideas such as completely indoor farming that took place underground were also presented to the audience.

These innovations, Dinneny said, make feeding an ever-growing population more and more realistic.

“So what we need is a green revolution,” Dinneny said. “We have a lot of challenges in our world, but this is perhaps the biggest we’re going to face.”

Reach Quinn Kelleher at science@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.