The Trevor A. Thorpe Fund was established in 2023 in memory of Dr. Trevor A. Thorpe. Dr. Thorpe was a Professor at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada (1969 to 2000). Trevor had a long and fruitful association with the TCA/SIVB. He was honored by SIVB with the Plant Fellow Award in 1998, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.
Trevor was a pioneering scientist, well known for his research contributions to ‘in vitro physiology’ and ‘conifer biotechnology’. He played leading roles in the SIVB, and the International Association for Plant Tissue Culture (IAPTC, which is now known as the International Association for Plant Biotechnology, IAPB). He was the Chair/President of IAPTC from 1974 to 1978 and organized the 1978 IAPTC Calgary conference. He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of our Society’s journal In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology – Plant (1991-1998), and of IAPB issues of the journal from 1999-2002. Trevor edited the Newsletter for IAPTC 1974-1978 while serving as chair of that society. Additionally, he served as a member of the editorial board for several other scientific journals, including Plant Cell Tissue & Organ Culture, Tree Physiology, Phytomorphology and Physiologia Plantarum. Besides his academic leadership at UC Calgary, he contributed actively to numerous international organizations and trained scientists around the world (Mexico, Bangladesh, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Costa Rica) through workshops he conducted. He was a distinguished and truly international scientist.
The purpose of the Trevor A. Thorpe Fund is to annually support a symposia at the SIVB’s In Vitro Biology Meetings that will be named in his honor. Funds from this award will directly support a Plant or Plenary Symposium on tissue culture or any similar topic within the Plant Biotechnology Section of the SIVB.
