Source(s):
Peter Hildebrand (352) 392-1965
Don Poucher (352) 392-0437

GAINESVILLE—The guest speaker for University of Florida’s 2000 York Distinguished Lecturer Series will be Donald L. Plucknett, president and principal scientist with Agricultural Research and Development International, Annandale, Virginia.

His presentation — “Agricultural Research at 2000: Will the Remarkable Agricultural Transformation Achieved in the 20th Century Continue?” — will be on Thursday, March 23 at 7:00 p.m. in the UF’s Florida Museum of Natural History (Powell Hall). A reception will follow his lecture. The program is free and open to the public.

For more than 35 years, Plucknett has had a distinguished career as a researcher, teacher, author, speaker and expert advisor in tropical agriculture and international agricultural development. He is recognized as an authority in international agricultural research and the world food problem.

His long career in research and international development at the University of Hawaii was capped by a 13-year period at the World Bank from 1980-1993 where he was Senior Scientific Advisor to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). CGIAR supports 16 international agricultural research centers, many of which have been instrumental in helping to boost world food supplies, particularly in cereals — an accomplishment that began in the 1960s and was termed the Green Revolution.

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