John Ruter named National Academy of Inventors Fellow

John Ruter, the Allan Armitage Endowed Professor of Horticulture in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and director of the UGA Trial Gardens, is a globally recognized leader in ornamental plant breeding and development. He develops novel ornamental cultivars through advanced breeding techniques focused on improved plant aesthetics, resilience and sustainability. His work has resulted in 30 issued U.S. plant patents, with additional domestic and international patents pending, all of which have been licensed to industry partners. These cultivars have generated nearly $750,000 in royalties and are widely used across the ornamental horticulture industry.

“Becoming a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors is quite an honor,” Ruter said. “I enjoy developing and patenting new ornamental plants and seeing the positive impact that they have on the nursery and landscape industries. Gratitude is indeed expressed to those staff, graduate students and student workers who have helped me over the years, as well as support from the Innovation Gateway at UGA.”

Hear directly from Ruter as he talks about UGA's latest woody and herbaceous ornamental plant breeding projects.

Along with inventing, Ruter is engaged with mentoring graduate students and is involved in educating community through outreach programs like Experience UGA, the Trial Gardens and other cooperative extension programs. Ruter is a Fellow of the American Society for Horticultural Science and the Southern Region International Plant Propagators’ Society and has received numerous honors including the Julian C. Miller Senior Distinguished Research Award from the American Society for Horticultural Science, the UGA Inventor of the Year Award, the Plant Licensing Innovation Award from UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the D.W. Brooks Faculty Award for Excellence in Research.

Editor's note: This article was originally published in UGA Today.