Purdue Center for Global Food Security Seeks Applicants for Fellows

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue Center for Global Food Security, a Purdue University research center leading efforts to develop the next generation of scientists and engineers to help solve world hunger, is seeking applications for U.S. Borlaug Fellows in Global Food Security.

A total of $270,000 in funding for the U.S. Borlaug Fellows comes from a five-year, $5 million grant to Purdue from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

"Our goal is to help prepare the next generation of young scientists and engineers who can effectively tackle the growing complexity around the global food security agenda," said Gebisa Ejeta, distinguished Purdue professor and director of the Purdue Center for Global Food Security.

Grants from this round range from $15,000 to $40,000 per student for projects lasting from six months to two years and are intended to provide support for graduate students interested in conducting critical food security research toward a master's or doctoral degree.

The application deadline is Nov. 10. U.S. citizens who are studying in a U.S. graduate program are encouraged to apply. Applications are available at Borlaug Fellow Applications.

Borlaug, an agronomist and humanitarian who died in 2009, is called the father of the "green revolution." He is credited with saving millions of lives worldwide by developing high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat varieties. For his work, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.

Led by Ejeta, the Center for Global Food Security was launched in the university's Discovery Park in 2010 to take up one of the world's most pressing challenges: getting enough food to people who need it the most today and producing enough to meet even greater future demands.

Ejeta, a native of Ethiopia, received the 2009 World Food Prize for his work in developing sorghum varieties resistant to drought and the parasitic weed Striga. His research has dramatically increased the production and availability of sorghum for hundreds of millions of people in Africa, where it is a major crop.