A message from the interim director of research and graduate education

With research expenditures near $120 million annually, the college is one of the most research-active colleges among our peer institutions. Included in this broad array of research are nearly 137 Agricultural Experiment Station projects that our faculty conduct as a part of our land grant mission. Our researchers also contribute to resident education and to outreach education through Cooperative Extension, ensuring that our mission of knowledge discovery is seamlessly connected with access to that knowledge.

Exciting research is being conducted by our college faculty. Our research portfolio addresses both near-term and long-term problems. We contribute to fundamental advances in the basic sciences, but we also provide science-based solutions that address current stakeholder concerns. Among our focus areas are such topics as environmental sustainability, bioenergy and bio-based products, plant response to environmental stress, and rural community vitality. We solve problems at the local, state, regional, national, and international scales. Some of our recent highlights include leadership in livestock reproductive biology, continued investigation of the underlying causes of colony collapse disorder, new tools for extracting fuels from renewable feedstocks, international leadership in breeding new crop varieties adapted to climate change, and weed management tools for organic and reduced input agricultural production systems.

Bookmark our college Research home page. I think you will find it provides “one-stop shopping" for the latest news from our researchers and activities of interest to you in the college and University communities.

Steve Loerch
Interim Director of Research and Graduate Education