Sylvia Blankenship, Edward Sisler, and Frank Zybach will join 19 others as part of the 2020 National Inventors Hall of Fame class.
Blankenship and Sisler co-invented 1-MCP, which is a compound that is vital in preventing food waste and increasing the year-round availability of fresh fruits, vegetables, and cut flowers. Blankenship is a professor at North Carolina State Univerity’s Department of Horticulture Science and is a retired associate dean. Sisler passed away in 2016.
Zybach invented the center-pivot irrigation in the 1940s. The invention revolutionized the U.S. ag industry. Zybach grew up on a farm in Nebraska and died in 1980.