CALS News

Nov 4, 2009

CONTACTS: Zonglie Hong, (208) 885-5464, zhong@uiddaho.edu

Written by Bill Loftus

Leading Biotechnologist to Lecture At the University of Idaho Nov. 12

MOSCOW, Idaho—Richard Sayre, a scientist focused on the use of biotechnology to alleviate malnutrition in Africa and produce renewable fuels, will visit the University of Idaho to deliver the LeTourneau Lecture Thursday, Nov. 12.

Sayre’s lecture, “The Promise of Plant Biotechnology; Innovations for Global Health and Renewable Energy,” will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the Life Sciences Building Room 277. The lecture is free and open to the public.

He is considered one of the nation’s leading researchers in plant biotechnology. His past research project with BioCassava was funded with grants totaling more than $12 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. That work focused on alleviating hunger and malnutrition in Africa and involved researchers from Washington State University.

His current research on renewable fuels won a $25 million grant from Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and a $15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Sayre serves as director of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute For Renewable Fuels, and director and principal investigator for BioCassava Plus at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Mo.

Sayre was formerly a distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Plant Cellular and Molecular Biology at Ohio State University.

The lecture was established in 1987 by Duane and Phyllis LeTourneau to honor his parents and to promote the understanding of advances in plant biology. Duane LeTourneau retired as a professor of biochemistry and chemistry in 1991 after a 38-year career of teaching and research at Idaho.

Lecture co-sponsors include the University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and Department of Microbiology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.