The Office of International Programs in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) has initiated the Global Food Security Fellows Program to support exceptional students who are interested in conducting food-related research in a developing country. The first cohort of Fellows included four ACES graduate students and three undergraduates. These Fellows will be sharing their experiences on the Voices of ACES blog.  

Graduate Student Fellows

Ben Norton (agricultural and consumer economics advised by Dr. Hope Michelson) is working with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Tanzania on fertilizer quality validation this summer.

Lucas Roberts (crop sciences advised by Dr. Anthony Studer) will be working with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico on improvements in maize water-use efficiency. He will travel towards the end of 2019.

Marshal White (crop sciences advised by Dr. Cameron Pittelkow) is working with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) on balancing economic and environmental sustainability for smallholder rice farmers in Peru this summer.  

Rodrigo Trevisan (crop sciences advised by Dr. Nicolas Martin) will be working with CIAT, CIMMYT and the CGIAR Big Data Platform on resilient cultivar development with predictive analytics. He will travel during the 2019-20 academic year.

Undergraduate Student Fellows

The following three ACES undergraduate students will be based in Malawi this summer to work with the ACES-based and USAID-funded Strengthening Agriculture and Nutrition Extension activity to deliver a video-extension campaign to smallholder farmers:

Christina Fernandez, senior in natural resources and environmental sciences

Kristen Iverson, senior in agricultural leadership and education 

Anoosha Memon, senior in agricultural and consumer economics  

We are currently accepting proposals for additional fellows until October 1, 2019. See the call for applications here. The Fellowships were made possible through generous donations from the Arlys Conrad estate.