Program at Purdue to train grad students in food security
June 29, 2012
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Thirty-one graduate students from 19 U.S. universities will gather at Purdue University for two weeks in July to study the array of problems involving world hunger in their quest to develop expertise as tomorrow's leaders in helping to find solutions.
The first Borlaug Summer Institute on Global Food Security will be held July 8-20. It is part of a five-year program to train U.S. graduate students in food security and global challenges in sustainable agriculture and related fields such as climate change, water, energy, economics, policy, technology and the environment. The U.S. Borlaug Fellows in Global Food Security program is funded by a $5 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
"The institute targets the brightest graduate students across our nation and sets the stage for them to become the next generation of leaders tasked with tackling global hunger," said Gary Burniske, managing director of the Purdue Center for Global Food Security, which will conduct the program annually.
The students come from a variety of educational backgrounds, including animal husbandry, grain processing and storage, climate change, sociology and engineering.
The institute will open with a reception for the students at 7 p.m. Sunday, July 8, at the center in Discovery Park, a complex of organizations leading large-scale collaborative research efforts on campus.
Gebisa Ejeta, the 2009 World Food Prize laureate and director of the center, will give opening remarks the next day to begin the training, which will include daily presentations from experts in agriculture, international trade, government policy, the environment and other fields affecting global food security. Among speakers are:
* Julie Borlaug, assistant director for partnerships of The Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M University.
* Rob Bertram, director of the USAID's Office of Agricultural Research and Policy.
* Timothy Sands, provost and interim president of Purdue.
* Peter Matlon, adjunct professor applied economics and management at Cornell University.
*Shenggen Fan, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute.
* Elsa Murano, professor and president emerita of Texas A&M.
Training will include field trips to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, four farm operations in Hancock County east of Indianapolis, and Historic Prophetstown in Battle Ground, Ind.
In addition to the summer institute, the Borlaug fellows program will involve a thesis and dissertation research opportunities for U.S. graduate students to work in developing countries for 6-24 months. They will lay foundations for new and long-term collaborative research in food and natural resource systems between food insecure nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the United States.
Writer: Keith Robinson, 765-494-2722, robins89@purdue.edu
Source: Gary Burniske, 765-494-0941, grburniske@purdue.edu
Related websites: Borlaug Fellowship Program
Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722;
Keith Robinson, robins89@purdue.edu
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