Established by Dr Pip Nelson in 1999, his legacy began with a PhD in Quantitative Genetics from the University of North Carolina in 1968, supported by a Rockefeller Scholarship. Throughout his career at Ciba Geigy, Dr Nelson developed elite maize hybrids and OPVs across Zimbabwe, South Africa, and abroad. As a premier maize breeder, his influence reached global scales. By 2016, his specialized hybrids recorded over 400,000 mt in sales across the entire African continent.