Global Food Security Center Hires Manager, Receives Grants

The recently created Center for Global Food Security at Purdue University has hired a managing director and received grants totaling $10 million for work to improve crops in Africa and train the next generation of global food security experts.

Gary Burniske, who had been director of Mercy Corps operations in Bogotá, Colombia, since 2006, will run daily operations of the center at Discovery Park, a complex of organizations leading large-scale collaborative research on campus engaging faculty, students and industry in state, national and global partnerships and entrepreneurial education.

“I envision the center being a catalyst for dramatic improvements in food security by sharing the tremendous wealth of knowledge and innovation generated at Purdue University,” said Burniske, who started his new position Feb. 1. “I look forward to working with the Discovery Park team to achieve Purdue’s vision as a global leader for solutions to social, economic and environmental challenges we face.”

• Continue reading the press release on the Purdue University website
• Find out more about Purdue’s U.S. Borlaug Fellows in Food Security Program 
• Find our more about Purdue’s Request for Applications for graduate research on topics relating to Feed the Future (due April 16, 2012)