Roger Beachy to Direct World Food Center
Announced TODAY, acclaimed plant biologist Roger
Beachy will become the founding director of the new World Food Center at the
University of California, Davis.
Beachy,
internationally known for scientific leadership and groundbreaking research in
crop disease-resistance, is charged with linking transformative research with
partnerships to address challenges and opportunities at the intersection of
food, agriculture and health.
 |
| Celebrating
the announcement are, from left, Karen Ross, secretary of the California
Department of Food and Agriculture; Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove; UC
Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi; and Roger Beachy (Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis
photo) |
The World
Food Center’s mission is to increase the economic benefit from campus research;
influence national and international policy; and convene teams of scientists
and innovators from industry, academia, government and nongovernmental
organizations to tackle food-related challenges in California and around the
world.
"Based
on the history of UC Davis and its role in helping make California agriculture
the envy of the world, I believe the World Food Center can make a
transformative difference positively influencing food production and
consumption here and around the world," said Karen Ross, secretary of the
California Department of Food and Agriculture.
“UC Davis
is one of the very few universities in the world equipped to address global
food challenges in a comprehensive manner,” Beachy said, with the added
advantage of being geographically located in California’s Central Valley — the
nation’s most productive agricultural region, which drives the state’s $43.5
billion annual farm economy.
Beachy, an
elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the 2001 recipient of
the prestigious Wolf Prize in Agriculture, is currently the founding executive
director and CEO of the Global Institute for Food Security in Saskatchewan,
Canada. He was appointed in 2009 by President Obama as the first director of
the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and
Agriculture, where he served until 2011.
Labels: Founding Director of New World Food Center at UC Davis, Roger Beachy to Direct UC Davis World Food Center
