AMES, Iowa -- A 2004 World Food Prize Laureate will spend Tuesday, Oct, 12 on the Iowa State campus. Professor Yuan Longping will meet with several researchers in the College of Agriculture and the Plant Sciences Institute, present a seminar, attend President Geoffroy's Leadership Class and dine at The Knoll.
Professor Yuan is the director-general of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Changsha, Hunan, China. His pioneering research has helped transform China from food deficiency to food security within three decades, and spurred the development of rice production in other Asian countries. He is widely acknowledged for deciphering the genetic basis of heterosis in rice. Heterosis is a hybrid plant's ability to outperform its parents.
Professor Yuan's seminar, "Super Rice Research," will be at 3:30 p.m. in 1414 Molecular Biology Building. A reception at 3 p.m. will be in the atrium. Both are free and open to the public.
Professor Yuan and Dr. Monty Jones of Sierra Leone are the 2004 World Food Prize Laureates. They will be honored in a ceremony during the World Food Prize International Symposium in Des Moines, Oct. 14.
Additional information is available at http://www.lectures.iastate.edu/showitem.php?id=543