April 27, 2016
Global Food Systems faculty to present results
Lead investigators from teams awarded Global Food Systems Innovation Grants in April 2015 will present research results in micro-talks from 3–5 p.m. Wednesday, May 11, in the Beach Museum of Art's UMB Theater. All are invited to attend.
During the 2015-2016 academic year, Kansas State University awarded $500,000 to nine faculty groups to address some of the world's food challenges. Each of the funded projects has taken a multidisciplinary approach to addressing a specific research question; is working to help create jobs and wealth in the state; and has involved student researchers.
"Advancing our ability to produce and safely deliver food to the growing world population is critical. K-State has an important role to play in solving this challenge, and the projects funded by the Global Food Systems Innovation Grants are an important step in the process," said Mary Rezac, interim associate vice president for research and program manager.
Rezac encourages everyone to attend. "These public presentations are an effective way to learn about a broad cross-section of projects. I encourage the entire campus community to come and learn about the research activities and explore opportunities for contributing to this important research area," she said.
The nine projects address mobile drip irrigation, applications of RNA interference in agriculture, development of probiotic supplements for livestock, delivering experiential career development education, development of a national genetic evaluation system for feet and leg conformation in beef cattle, development of novel starch-based food ingredients, effects of guanidinoacetic acid on lean growth rate in cattle, modeling transportation in the beef cattle system to mitigate potential threats, and hosting an international Urban Food Systems symposium at K-State Olathe.
Awardees participated in a series of meetings during the 2015-2016 academic year to discuss progress, enhance science communication skills, and learn about university resources to promote research, scholarly, and creative activity and discovery. Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from the teams received separate training on using visuals to help communicate science to the public.