Sterling Wortman Jr.

Sterling Wortman Jr. (3 April 1923 — 26 May 1981) was an American plant geneticist.

Sterling Wortman Jr. was born on April 3, 1923, in Quinlan, Oklahoma.

He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in agronomy from Oklahoma State University in 1943. Later, he attended the University of Minnesota, graduating with a Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics, in 1950.

After finishing his education, in 1950, Wortman was hired as a corn breeder in the Mexican Agricultural Program's corn improvement program. He left the MAP in 1955 to head the Plant Breeding Department at the Pineapple Research Institute in Honolulu, Hawaii, and returned to the RF in 1960.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation collaborated in creating several international agricultural research institutes to carry out Mexican Agricultural Program's seminal agricultural work on a global scale. Wortman played a key role in these efforts, helping launch the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines and focusing on researching and re-engineering the rice plant to increase rice production. 

In 1960-1962, Wortman served as IRRI's Assistant Director and then as Associate Director from 1962 to 1964.

In 1966, he was appointed as the Rockefeller Foundation's Director for Agricultural Sciences. In that role, he helped restructure the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico as a private corporation. The move dramatically improved the Center's funding and efficacy. 

In 1971, he helped establish the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which served to mobilize and coordinate public and private funding for international research centers. 

After becoming a Vice-President at Rockefeller Foundation in 1970, Wortman helped establish the International Agricultural Development Service (IADS), which worked to strengthen agricultural programs in developing nations. 

In 1975, he was promoted to IADS' President position—a role that he held until 1979. After the death of President John H. Knowles in March 1979, Wortman assumed the role of the Rockefeller Foundation's Acting President. He left his full-time work with the Rockefeller Foundation after Stanford University President Richard W. Lyman was appointed President in 1980.

In his 1992 book An Adventure in Applied Science: A History of the International Rice Research Institute, IRRI Founding Director Robert F. Chandler, Jr. emphasized that "Wortman's contribution to the progress of IRRI in those early years cannot be overestimated."

Sterling Wortman died of cancer on May 26, 1981, at the age of 58. The Rockefeller Archive Center holds a collection of his papers, including articles, correspondence, reports, and speeches.