Letter from the Chairman
“The Right Place at the Right Time” was the theme for our 2009 State of the Center event given to Friends of the Danforth Center. At our founding 11 years ago, few realized the importance of what we were about. Today much has changed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a new National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) that is designed to upgrade the research of the Department (see page 4). The federal Department of Energy has been making major investments in biofuels (see page 6). The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has also made feeding the hungry one of its priorities. These and other examples show that overall, the national environment has become much more supportive of plant science.
Dr. William H. Danforth
Such changes have been positive for our Center and for all of plant science, but as usual there are unanticipated side effects. The USDA asked if we would lend them our president, Roger Beachy, to be the founding director of NIFA. Roger wanted to take on the challenge and the Board agreed, thinking that no one could do a better job establishing this important federal agency. Roger is now fully involved in that task, and he is carrying it out ably.
Fortunately Dr. Philip Needleman, an outstanding biologic scientist and member of the Board of our Center, was willing to function as interim president while we conducted a search for Roger’s permanent successor. Phil is doing an outstanding job and we are all indebted to him. Meanwhile, the search is going well. Many of plant science’s most outstanding leaders have helped us with both advice and suggestions. As you will see from this report, in the meantime, our work goes on. I am more grateful than ever for the talent, energy, vision and hard work by our scientists, administrative staff, volunteers and friends on whom our success depends.
Letter from the interim president
Favorable winds of change occurred in 2009. The most prominent was the creation of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Not surprisingly, our founding President Roger Beachy was asked to become the Institute’s fi rst director (see page 4).
As a member of the Center’s Board of Trustees and a citizen of St. Louis, I agreed to serve as Interim President while we search for a new world-class leader. I’ve spent 50 years as a scientist doing medical research at Washington University School of Medicine, Monsanto and in the pharmaceutical industry. That research focused on dissecting and understanding how life processes work.
Dr. Phil Needleman
When I came to the Danforth Center, I thought about the fact that the tools with which we attack problems in plant sciences and human disease are the same. I comforted myself with the notion that a plant is really a person that doesn’t move.
For the fi rst four months in my new role, I was in constant tutorials evaluating numerous projects. Pretty quickly I was struck by what it means, “not to move”. Plants sit there and are attacked by bacteria, by fungus, by viruses, by predators, by drought, by cold and more.
Much of the science at the Danforth Center explores the fundamental understanding of the unique characteristics of plants and how they survive. How do we learn from Mother Nature and then how do we enhance her survival tools to create plants that will improve human health and the environment? This research is at the heart of our mission, and this 2009 report demonstrates the remarkable progress the Center continues to achieve.
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2008 Annual Report
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