Our Speakers
Dr. Vara Prasad is a Distinguished Professor of Crop Ecophysiology and Director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification (SIIL) at Kansas State University. His research mainly focuses on understanding responses of food grains crop to changing environments and developing crop management strategies for efficient use of inputs.
Dr. Charles Rice is a Distinguished Professor in Soil Science at Kansas State University. Throughout the years he became involved in many aspects of 4-H. Dr. Rice is specialized in soil microbiology, carbon cycling, and climate change. He was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
Dr. Thomas R. Sinclair is an Adjunct Professor at North Carolina State University in Crop Physiology and Ecology.
Dr. Sinclair has a long trajectory working on plant water relations, symbiotic nitrogen fixation, carbon accumulation, and developmental processes. Much of his research was synthesized into crop models to simulate growth and yield.
Dr. Mitch Tuinstra is Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Purdue University. His research focuses on identifying genes and genetic resources that contribute to improved crop performance in stressful environments. This work is done in collaboration with scientists and breeders in North America, Africa, and Asia.
Dr. Charlie Messina
Dr. Charlie Messina is a senior research scientist at DuPont Pioneer. His major research interest includes the fusion of biological models and statistical learning methodologies to increase the limits of predictability and response to environmental change in agricultural systems.
Dr. Rajiv Khosla is a Professor of Precision Agriculture at Colorado State University. His main research focus has been on Management of in-field soil and crop spatial variability using innovative technologies for variable rate, precision nutrient, and water management. Dr. Khosla is the Founder and Past-President of the International Society of Precision Agriculture.
