Peanut Innovation Lab Takes Home Research Award – AgFax

Peanut Innovation Lab Takes Home Research Award – AgFax
The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut won the Corteva Agriscience Award for Research at the 55th annual meeting of the American Peanut Research and Education Society meeting held in Savannah, Ga., July 11-13, 2023. Kristen McHugh, operations specialist for the lab; Cristiane Pilon, chair of the award selection committee; Dave Hoisington, director of the lab; Allison Floyd, communications coordinator for the lab; and Jamie Rhoads, assistant director for the lab pose at the award ceremony. Not pictured are post-doc and gender specialist Jessica Marter-Kenyon and business administrator Allen Stripling. (CAES)

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut has won the Corteva Agriscience Award for Excellence in Research, an honor that recognizes an individual or team for career performance or for outstanding research of significant benefit to the peanut industry. The award is given each year at the American Peanut Research and Education Society meeting, which was held this past week in Savannah. The Peanut Innovation Lab, which is headquartered in the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, conducts research around the world, but had made a substantial contribution to American peanut research by connecting U.S. and overseas scientists, leveraging knowledge and technology to solve problems and assisting promising graduate students around the globe in their educations.

“This is an amazing honor for the lab, and we are truly grateful for the recognition,” said Dave Hoisington, director of the Peanut Innovation Lab. “It’s particularly worthwhile to receive recognition at APRES because it shows how U.S. scientists and farmers see the benefit of international research.

“Our research projects bring together top scientists from the U.S. and other countries to solve real world problems. The fact that Corteva and APRES see the dual benefits of this work is particularly rewarding for us as the team that manages this work.”

APRES is the premier research society for peanut production and processing in the U.S. The annual meeting, held over three days in a peanut-growing state, draws hundreds of scientists and students to share their latest research.

The Peanut Innovation Lab is managed by CAES and works with scientists throughout the U.S. and Africa, conducting research primarily in Senegal, Ghana, Uganda and Malawi to advance the U.S. Agency for International Development’s work to improve global food security and farmers’ livelihoods.