Welcome. I am aquí.

What I do

I teach plant genetics courses at The University of Georgia, as well as a tropical agriculture course. I also run a laboratory research program which uses biotechnology to improve crops. Check it out, and you will get to see what I do and the people who work with me. I specialize in soybean biotechnology.

About me

My last name comes from Kentucky, but half my family is from Guatemala. I was raised in both Nicaragua, where I went to the American Nicaraguan School, and in Guatemala, where I went to the American School of Guatemala.

I then came stateside and got a BS degree in Agronomy from the University of Kentucky. Finally, I got an MS and PhD in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

My current position

Professor
Department of Crop & Soil Sciences
The University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
Tel. (706) 542-0928
FAX (706) 583-8124
wparrott@uga.edu

Friends and relatives with home pages

Thus far there are not too many of them.

Directory of my high shool classmates (Class of 1977, American School of Guatemala)

American Nicaraguan School Alumni Club

My cousin Fernando

My godson, Lyndon

Things to do, read, watch, or listen to during slow moments

Favorite travel photos

Genealogy on the Internet

The descendants of my great great great grandparents, Pastor Ospina Rodríguez and Carlota Chaparro de Ospina, and his ancestors

Descendants of Thomas Sims Graves, my 11th great-grandfather

Pile family genealogy: desdendants of my 10th great-grandfather, Richard Pile (1598-1657)

About the page's background

The background on this page is one of the few depictions of a parrot made by the Maya. This particular carving, made on a bone, dates to 735 A.D., the Late Classic period in Tikal, Guatemala. The parrot is a passenger on a canoe along with people and other animals. This carving has been the subject of many (mis)interpretations over the years. It was once thought to be a scene whereby the Paddler Gods were taking a dead king to the after life. Current thought is that it depicts a scene missing from the Popol Vuh. After the Hero Twins have defeated the lords of Xibalbá (the underworld), they restored the head of their dead father, thereby resurrecting him as the Maize God/First Father. The bone depicts the Paddler Gods taking him in a canoe, as a metaphor for the Milky Way, to a spot near Orion (a turtle in the Maya zodiac), where the First Father (the Maize god) laid the three hearth stones of creation, thus creating the present world. For more details on this, read Maya Cosmos, by David Freidel, Linda Schele, and Joy Parker, and you will read, IMNSHO, one of the best accounts of scientific discovery ever written.