Meet the new ops boss
Sankaran KrishnaRaj has wide-ranging set of responsibilities as researchmanager at Agassiz.
By Judie Steeves I
f he’s invisible, then the new research manager at the Pacific Agri-food Research Centre in Agassiz figures he’s doing his job. Sankaran KrishnaRaj moved to the Fraser Valley in April to take on his new position and says if everything is going smoothly and “no one knows I’m here, then I’m doing my job.”
It’s his responsibility to deal with the day-to-day operations of the centre and its 75 employees, from financial affairs to human resources and staffing actions. Basically, he’s the operational manager for the centre, reporting to the science director, Barry Grace, who works out of the Summerland centre. He says one of his top priorities is to get the resources to allow scientists to do their work at the centre, while he deals with both community issues related to the centre and to issues that come up within the facility.
KrishnaRaj’s background is also as a research scientist who used to work at the University of Guelph using geraniums to learn how plants take up minerals and grow in cultures, and investigating plant ingredients with a view to discovering new nutraceuticals. His father was an agronomist in India who became the president of the university, so as a young man, KrishnaRaj wanted to follow in his footsteps. He came to Canada to earn his PhD on the salt tolerance of wheat in Alberta and stayed.
Most recently, he worked with Environment Canada in Ontario. With 22 scientists and 21 technicians working on 310 hectares in two sites at Agassiz and a 7.5-hectare field in Abbotsford, there’s no shortage of issues.
The 10-year-old lab and office complex is 7,100 square metres and is surrounded by an arboretum that
12 British Columbia Berry Grower • Fall 2011
includes many of the original trees planted when the centre was established 125 years ago, as well as a barn complex that includes a heritage stone barn dating from 1893.
While Agriculture Canada collaborates with UBC in the dairy and poultry side of the centre, it is now being taken over by UBC, but it will remain on-site.
In addition there are insect rearing rooms, two research greenhouses that total 3,200 square metres in size, and a weather station that’s been in continuous operation since 1889. To celebrate the 125th anniversary of Canada’s network of research centres, there was an open house at Agassiz in July, and every year Berry Days are held for growers to learn all about the latest that scientists have discovered that will affect what they’re doing. In addition, such events provide opportunities for
JUDIE STEEVES
Sankaran KrishnaRaj joined the Pacific Agri-food Research Centre in Agassiz as research manager in April.
scientists and farmers to interact and that often provides the germ of an idea for future research to improve farming. Today, as well, although a majority of the funding for such research comes from the federal government, seed
funding comes from growers. “That helps keep research focused on the needs of the community,” KrishnaRaj comments. “We must keep research relevant to what’s needed. We can’t do it in a vacuum.”
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