This year’s Spring Benefit raised over $250,000 to support the Kathy L. Chan Greenhouse, the working laboratory of the Institute’s plant genomics team.

HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and the HudsonAlpha Foundation are deeply grateful to everyone who supported the 2024 Spring Benefit! This year’s benefit would not have been possible without our generous Discovery sponsors, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, Intrepid, and The Shields Group, the Mantooth Pols, and Keene Group at Morgan Stanley, as well as our DNA, Premier, and Friends of the Institute sponsors!

Marking DNA Day on April 25, 2024, the HudsonAlpha Foundation’s annual Spring Benefit brought together members of the community, state and local officials, and HudsonAlpha leadership, faculty, and trainees at the Jackson Center to raise funds for the Institute’s Kathy L. Chan Greenhouse.

The annual Spring Benefit has been a HudsonAlpha tradition for over 15 years, serving as one of the nonprofit’s largest fundraisers across mission areas. This year, the event took the audience behind the scenes of the Kathy L. Chan Greenhouse to discover the life-changing work in plant genomics that takes place inside. Donations raised for the Kathy L. Chan Greenhouse exceeded a $250,000 fundraising goal.

The evening started off with a greeting from emcee Payton Walker of Tennessee Valley Living on WAFF 48, followed by a few words from Neil Lamb, PhD, HudsonAlpha President, and an introduction to the program by Laramie Aközbek, a doctoral student from Auburn University studying at HudsonAlpha. Guests then heard from HudsonAlpha Faculty Investigators Jane Grimwood, PhD, Alex Harkess, PhD, Josh Clevenger, PhD, Jeremy Schmutz, and Kankshita Swaminathan, PhD.

From projects that impact north Alabama locally to national programs and global initiatives, the work led by HudsonAlpha’s plant genomics faculty is helping feed people worldwide, improving sustainability and agricultural practices, and protecting our planet for future generations.

The Kathy L. Chan Greenhouse boasts state-of-the-art features that make it possible for faculty members on HudsonAlpha’s plant genomics team to regulate temperature, light, and humidity in the greenhouse’s seven glasshouses, creating optimal growing temperatures for each plant. In addition to the glasshouses, the greenhouse is equipped with a seed storage vault that can preserve seeds with valuable genetic material for up to ten years, several molecular labs, a soil sterilization system, and a spacious potting room.

Donations raised from the Spring Benefit support critical greenhouse operations that make HudsonAlpha’s research possible. Such a technologically advanced greenhouse is unique, offering our researchers important opportunities to explore and solve some of our world’s challenges.

Learn more about the Kathy L. Chan Greenhouse and consider making a gift today to support this vital research.

View photos of this year’s Spring Benefit.