LUBBOCK - Sitting among one of the largest sorghum-growing areas in the U.S., Texas Tech aims to show the world how its cutting-edge research and innovation can drive an industry, according to a news release from the university.
Texas Tech will host the Global Sorghum Conference Sept. 14-18 at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center.
Marking the first time it has been held in the U.S., the conference brings together leading researchers, producers and industry experts from around the world to Lubbock.
“Lubbock’s location in the heart of the sorghum belt and Texas Tech’s extensive sorghum research make us a natural fit to host,” said Monty Christian, executive director of marketing strategies in Research & Innovation, who is chair of the conference planning
committee. “We’re excited to showcase what makes this area so important to advancing sorghum research and production.”
Previous conferences were hosted in Cape Town, South Africa and Montpelier, France. The selection of Texas Tech as conference host by the Global Sorghum Association underscores the university’s growing international reputation in agricultural research and positions West Texas as a global hub for conversations on food security, resilience and crop innovation.
The conference will showcase private and public researchers as well as highlight sorghum’s unique role in providing a drought-resistant, heat-tolerant agricultural food source. It also will give Texas Tech researchers an opportunity to demonstrate the extraordinary research being conducted on campus.
“Issues facing West Texas are facing many other semi-arid regions, and that makes the research we’re leading in areas like genomics and water conservation critical worldwide,” said James Reecy, vice president for research and innovation. “The conference is a great opportunity to expand our global impact through collaboration and knowledge exchange.”
At the conference, experts will explore solutions to some of agriculture’s most pressing challenges, including water scarcity, sustainable production and feeding a growing global population. The aim of the conference is to:
- Catalyze new research and collaboration on high-priority topics;
- Strengthen the relationship between producers and researchers;
- Foster interaction between academia, government and national programs, NGOs and the private sector;
- Work with the Global Sorghum Association to promote the international importance of sorghum.
Among the Texas Tech researchers who will be featured at the conference are Luis Herrera-Estrella, President’s Distinguished Professor of Plant Genomics and director of the Institute of Genomics for Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance (IGCAST), and Krishna Jagadish, professor and Thornton Distinguished Chair in the Department of Plant & Soil Science and director of the Texas Coalition for Sustainable Integrated Systems Research Program (TeCSIS).
Keynote speakers will include:
- University of Queensland (Australia) professor David Jordan, a sorghum breeder and geneticist who has more than 30 years’ experience in both the public and private sectors;
- Holly Mayton, the Science, Technology and Policy Partnerships Lead at the John Deere Corporation;
- Jessica Christiansen, Head of Communications for Bayer CropScience;
- Kira Everhart-Valentin, Alliance Manager for Gates One Ag;
- Nora Lapitan, Deputy Administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Research Service.
To learn more and register for the event, visit: www.depts.ttu.edu/research/sorghum-conference/.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech aims to shine bringing Global Sorghum Conference to Lubbock
