A major player in the nation’s agricultural research efforts will visit West Virginia University and present a seminar hosted by the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design.

Caird Rexroad, Ph.D., will speak on “Meeting the Grand Challenges: Research on Food and the Environment” at 7 p.m. Friday (Oct. 5) at the Morgantown Event Center. The seminar is part of WVU’s year-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Land Grant University System.

“If we are to meet the challenges to agriculture over the next 40 years, we will need the land grant universities, and specifically West Virginia University, to continue to produce more men and women who see their careers in agriculture and have a passion for science,” Rexroad said.

Rexroad is associate administrator with the USDA Agricultural Research Service and is responsible for managing the ongoing research programs of the agency. The ARS is the USDA’s chief in-house research arm, overseeing some 800 research projects within 18 national programs and operating under a $1.1 billion fiscal year budget.

The ARS conducts research to develop and transfer solutions to agricultural problems of high national priority and provide information access and dissemination to ensure high-quality, safe food and other agricultural products, assess the nutritional needs of Americans, sustain a competitive agricultural economy, enhance the natural resource base and the environment and provide economic opportunities for rural citizens, communities and society as a whole.

Rexroad is a native of West Virginia. After completion of undergraduate studies in animal science at WVU in 1968, he served in the U.S. Army. Following military service, he obtained a Ph.D. in reproductive physiology-endocrinology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His professional career has been entirely with the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture.

The seminar is free and open to the public. For more information on Rexroad’s visit to WVU, contact Paul Lewis at 304-216-6987 or plewis@wvu.edu.

-WVU-

dw/10/03/12

CONTACT: David Welsh, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
304-293-2394, David.Welsh@mail.wvu.edu

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