Sonny Ramaswamy, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will speak at NC State on Thursday, Nov. 20, on the future of agriculture and how to feed a growing world population. The free lecture, titled “Setting the table for a flatter, hotter, more crowded Earth,” begins at 10 a.m. in the Piedmont-Mountains Ballroom in the Talley Student Union. A question-and-answer session will follow the presentation.
Ramaswamy’s visit is part of Cooperative Extension’s centennial celebration. In 1914, the passage of the Smith-Lever Act marked the beginning of what were then known as agricultural extension programs across the country. In addition to his campus talk, he will participate in the N.C. Agriculture and Biotechnology Summit Nov. 18-19 at the McKimmon Center.
Under Ramaswamy’s leadership, NIFA provides funds for a wide range of research, education and extension projects that address the needs of farmers, ranchers and agricultural producers. Prior to joining NIFA, he was dean of Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences and director of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station.
Ramaswamy also has served as associate dean of the Purdue University College of Agriculture and directed the university’s agricultural research program. He also led Kansas State University’s Department of Entomology, where he was named the Presidential Outstanding Department Head in 2002. In addition, he has been a faculty member at Mississippi State University and a research associate at Michigan State University. As an insect physiologist, he studied the integrative reproductive biology of insects.
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