The American Association for the Advancement of Science announced Thursday that it has awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow to University of Arkansas (U of A) rice breeder Karen Kuenzel Moldenhauer.

Moldenhauer, who holds the university's Rice Industry Chair for Variety Development, is based at the Rice Research and Extension Center (RREC) near Stuttgart, which is a unit of the U of A System's Division of Agriculture.

The rice breeding program has developed 19 improved varieties since 1982, when Moldenhauer, also a professor in the Department of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences at UA, Fayetteville, joined the faculty as leader of the program.

Moldenhauer was selected as a fellow in the AAAS section on agriculture, food and renewable resources. Her role in the team effort to improve the genetic potential of rice varieties for yield, quality, diseases resistance and other traits was cited as a major factor in the sustainability of rice production in Arkansas and other states. Arkansas farmers produce about half of the rice grown in the United States.

Moldenhauer has a Ph.D. degree in plant breeding from Iowa State University.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society and publishes the journal Science. AAAS includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science. The association will recognize 449 new fellows at its annual meeting Feb. 17 in San Francisco.