H I G HLI GHTS F ROM THE PRES E N TAT ION
position of national leadership. Now is our chance to play a role even larger than we had anticipated. As you listen to my colleagues, you will not be hearing that difficulties and tough challenges are behind us. On the contrary, you will likely gather, as I have, that new opportunities for important service bring more work and more challenges than ever before. If you play in the major leagues, you have to work harder.
Now as you listen to Phil and Sam, think about running up an escalator. Think about new opportunities to serve the world and our home community.
Sam Fiorello thanked the Center’s generous donors, and gave all a sense of the Center’s financial strength, noting: “we pride ourselves on our continual drive to add value and efficiencies into our organization – both serving as good stewards of our funds and providing the highest
level of service to our scientists so that they - WE -, will better achieve mission impact: to improve the human condition through plant science.”
Fiorello announced that on a per-capita basis, public/ private scientific grant funding at the Center was more than 2 ½ times the national average. He credited the scientists themselves, the Center’s culture of collaboration, and “terrific infrastructure and back-office support,” that allowed them to take full advantage of being in the right place at the right time.
Reporting on the success of fundraising in 2009, Fiorello reiterated that “unrestricted funding is absolutely critical to fulfilling our mission. These funds help give us the necessary leverage to attract the large grants and awards… And after receiving these grants, our unrestricted dollars enable the Center to cover the additional costs of this research. With our recent success and growing need for greenhouse space and new equipment, increased annual support will be key to ensuring that we can seize the opportunities before us.”
Center Friends Committee members George Fonyo and Richard Haynes show off their “Right Place, Right Time” themed mugs.
Interim President Phil Needleman gave a sweeping review of four different areas of promising research that is ongoing at the Center. Out of the numerous research topics and strategies that are being undertaken, Needleman chose four he felt were most illustrative of the Center’s overall mission:
cassava fortification and disease resistance; the development of algae as a source of biofuels;
the creation of soy that can create useful industrial proteins;
and research into enhancing fungal resistance in
important crops.
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