Fifth-annual Shaw Lecture to cover GMOs and the science of food crops
March 9, 2016
Dr. Nina Fedoroff will present the fifth-annual Marlene V. Shaw Biology Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 30 in Carter Hall located in University Center West. The presentation, entitled "Food and Civilization: Why Should We Care About GMOs?", addresses setting the table for 10 billion people. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Fedoroff is a distinguished scholar with expertise at the interface of modern genetic methods, science diplomacy, and the future of food production. She has been involved in the regulatory issues surrounding genetic modification of organisms (GMOs) for improvement of agricultural plants, animals, and microorganisms.
"Civilization depends on our expanding ability to produce food efficiently, which has markedly accelerated thanks to science and technology," Fedoroff wrote in a 2011 editorial for the New York Times titled "Engineering food for all."
"The use of chemicals for fertilization and for pest and disease control, the induction of beneficial mutations in plants with chemicals or radiation to improve yields, and the mechanization of agriculture have all increased the amount of food that can be grown on each acre of land by as much as 10 times in the last 100 years."
Modern molecular genetics can improve crops beyond the capability of the older methods of the first Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. A second Green Revolution is needed to enable plants to handle the environmental stresses of drought, heat and salinity while remaining productive.
Fedoroff served as the Science & Technology Adviser to two U.S. Secretaries of State and to the Administrator of U.S. Agency for International Development from 2007 to 2010. She was the 2012 President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the recipient of a 2006 National Medal of Science. She founded and serves as Scientific Adviser to the Global Knowledge Initiative.
Fedoroff has published more than 150 papers in scientific journals and authored three books including Mendel in the Kitchen.
The Annual Marlene V. Shaw Biology Lecture is funded by an endowment established by the USI Foundation.