ABE professor appointed chair of USDA advisory council

Manjit Misra, Iowa State University professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering and director of the Seed Science Center, has been named chairman of the National Genetic Resources Advisory Council.

The council was created to provide scientific advice for the US Department of Agriculture and the National Genetic Resources Program related to the collection, maintenance and utilization of genetic resources. Misra will serve a four-year term on the council, including two years as chair, and will lead nine members from the public and private sector with diverse backgrounds in plant breeding and genetics, organic seed, ecology, animal science, and the Native American tribal traditions.

“Genetic resources are fundamental to agriculture, because they are ‘seed for seed.’ So, this work is central to providing food security for the nation and for the world,” Misra said. “Partnerships, public and private as well as domestic and international, are the keys to meeting this objective.”

Misra joined the Iowa State faculty in 1979. Under his leadership, the Seed Science Center has conducted programs in 80 countries in the last 12 years.