The Royal Agricultural Society of England’s 2011 Research Medal, for work of direct benefit to UK agriculture, has been awarded to Professor Keith Edwards in the School of Biological Sciences, in recognition of his work using genomics-based technologies to identify, map, isolate, manipulate and express genes of interest to plant breeders. The RASE Research Medal was introduced to acknowledge “research work of outstanding merit, carried out in the United Kingdom, which has proved, or is likely to be, of benefit to agriculture” Professor Edwards led the team which recently released genomic sequences covering 95% of all wheat genes, a significant building block in efforts to develop new types of wheat, better able to cope with drought, salinity or able to deliver higher yields.