INTAD Student Spotlight: Alejandro Gil

Alejandro Gil is a first year M.S. student in Agricultural & Extension Education and International Agriculture and Development. Before coming to Penn State, he worked as an agronomist and engineer at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Medellín and as a researcher for Compañía Nacional de Chocolates. He oversaw a series of diverse projects related to cacao, including breeding, agroforestry, fertilization, pest and disease management, heavy metals remediation, nursery production, somatic embryogenesis, polyphenols and co-products. He was also responsible for training groups of farmers in several Colombian states, collaborating with other institutions on research projects and serving as a representative for research committees in Colombia's agricultural sector.

Alejandro says that he is studying International Agriculture and Development (INTAD) "because it is a wonderful opportunity to increase my knowledge about the most relevant principles involved in the economic, environmental and social sustainability of agriculture. I want to learn how agriculture has shaped the history of countries, how it has allowed them to achieve their most challenging goals and how it could solve their current and future problems".

Alejandro is a Fulbright Scholar and a participant in the Cacao for Peace project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that seeks to strengthen the scientific capacity for cocao research in Columbia. The project is led by Dr. Siela Maximova, the Cacao for Peace project's primary investigator at the university, and Mark Guiltinan.

Find out more about Alejandro in this recent Penn State news release.