The View Ahead - Summer 2019

When I’m asked what most distinguishes Purdue Agriculture, the answer is obvious to me: innovation.

From our founding to today, Purdue faculty, staff and students have been in the laboratories, fields, farms and greenhouses uncovering information, seeking answers and developing solutions. Sometimes information is a building block to the next level of discovery. Other times answers lead directly to effecting change in the world.

In this issue, you’ll learn more about how a Purdue agriculture faculty team made a difference in Afghanistan, where they collaborated on developing and implementing a food technology curriculum.

Several articles also explore advances in controlled environment agriculture. Today, with the onset of so many digital tools, potential exists for tremendous improvement, a reality in which Purdue has and will play an important role.

Innovation is a pervasive cultural value that we must nourish and cultivate. We recognized that when the plant sciences was selected as one of the Purdue Moves initiatives. The university’s generous support led to numerous opportunities, like hiring an additional 10 faculty who represent another era of potential innovations.

I was also reminded of the importance of providing ongoing encouragement to our faculty during our new Associate Dean of Agricultural Research and Graduate Education Bernie Engel’s first week on the job when he issued a call for proposals for review papers connected to research in the focus areas for the university’s 150th celebration: health and longevity, sustainable economy and planet, artificial intelligence and space exploration. Bernie received 28 proposals, and decided they had such promise that he selected 14 instead of 10 teams to receive $10,000 grants.

The cycle of innovation continues…