Purdue University, Indiana is establishing a center that will combine the broad-based expertise of dozens of faculty and staff members coordinating research and education to advance the production and use of soybeans. The Purdue University Soybean Center will formally begin operations in the fall. Marshall Martin, Senior Associate Director of Agricultural Research, Assistant Dean of Agriculture, and Professor of Agricultural Economics, has been appointed as the center’s Founding Director for two years.
Martin’s immediate focus will be to consult with faculty and staff members and representatives of the soybean industry in developing a strategic plan for research that engages Purdue faculty and staff in key issues of the soybean “value chain.” That includes food for a fast-growing world population and feed for animals as well as other uses such as biofuels and industrial uses.
That value chain noted by Martin, links research in such areas as animal and human nutrition sciences; food science; aquaculture; plant pathology; economics; engineering; genetics and breeding; agronomic production practices; and entomology.
“With more than 40 faculty and staff members at Purdue whose work in some way involves soybeans, we are pooling our resources to help tackle some of the complex challenges affecting the efficiency and profitability of the soybean industry as well as the food nutrition needs of the public,” said Martin.