USDA / MOST Conference Participants

From China 

Dr. ZHANG Laiwu

Dr. ZHANG Laiwu is the Vice Minister and Member of the Leading Party Group of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MOST). Dr. ZHANG Laiwu was sent to Tongling City of Anhui Province as an intellectual youth in 1973 and worked there until 1976. In 1982, he graduated from the Mathematics Department of Fudan University. From 1982 to 1987, he got M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mathematics from Peking University. Then from 1987 to 1990, he served as Lecturer and Associate Professor of the School of Management, Member of the Communist Party Committee and Secretary of the Communist Youth League in Peking University, and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League. In 1995, he received Ph.D. in Economics from State University of New York. He was Vice President and Executive Vice President of China Youth University for Political Sciences from 1995 to 1999, and Member of the Leading Party Group and Chairman Assistant of People’s Government of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from 1999 to 2001. From 2001 to 2002, he took the office as Director of the Management Committee of Yinchuan Economic and Technological Development Zone. He served as Chairman Assistant of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from 2002 to 2003 and Vice Chairman from 2003 to 2008. In August 2008, he was appointed as Vice Minister and Member of the Leading Party Group of MOST.

CHEN Chuanhong

Mr. CHEN Chuanhong is the Director-General of Department of Rural Science and Technology, MOST, China.

MA Linying

Mr. MA Linying is the Deputy Director-General of Department of International Cooperation (Office of Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan Affairs), MOST, China.

YANG Ru

Mr. YANG Ru is the assistant to Vice Minister ZHANG Laiwu, MOST, China.

WANG Yawu

Dr. WANG Yawu is an official of the Department of Rural Science and Technology, MOST, China.

LU Jia

Ms. LV Jia is an official of Division of American and Oceanian Affairs, Department of International Cooperation (Office of Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan Affairs), MOST, China.

LI Chaochen

Mr. LI Chaochen is the Minister Counselor in Office of Science and Technology in the Embassy of China in US.

LUO Jun

Mr. LUO Jun is the Third Secretary about Agricultural Science affairs in Office of Science and Technology in the Embassy of China in US.

Prof. HE Zhonghu

Dr. HE Zhonghu, graduated from Beijing Agricultural University in 1989 with PhD degree. He is the Professor and Supervisor of PhD students in the Institute of Crop Science, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science. He is also the Head of China office of International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. He served as an agriculturalist engaged by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for many times. He keeps consanguineous contact with many research institutes and universities around the world. He is in charged of and participated in more than ten projects, including national projects under National “863 Hi-tech Research & Development Plan”, National “948 Program”, MOST-CIMMYT Key International Cooperation Project and so on. His research focuses on wheat quality. He published 75 papers and six books.

Prof. HUO Guicheng

Prof. HUO Guicheng was specially appointed as a Longjiang Scholar by the Education Department of Heilongjiang Province, and serves as a professor and Ph.D. supervisor at Northeast Agricultural University. He is also the academic leader of food science, which is the key discipline of Heilongjiang Province; the director and chief expert of Key Laboratory of Dairy Science, Ministry of Education of China. He was honored as the Trans-Century Talent by the Ministry of Education and the excellent Ph.D. supervisor by the Ministry of Education; was granted the special government allowance by the State Council. He has been engaged in the researches of animal nutrition and dairy science for many years, and has been in charge of 38 scientific subjects of home and abroad, 9 of which are under research.

Prof. LI Yinong

LI Yinong graduated from Tsinghua University in 1985. He has been working in the Department of Irrigation and Drainage, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR) since 1985. He got the Master Degree in 1988 in IWHR and Ph. D. in 2000 in Technical University of Lisbon. His work is related with the water saving irrigation technology, especially on the surface irrigation. The major research directions are: (1) basic theoretical research, including the field evaluation methods about the surface irrigation performances, description and simulation of the field microtopography condition and its effect on the surface irrigation performance, feedback control technology for surface irrigation. (2) application technology research, including laser controlled land leveling technology, precision surface irrigation technology, high efficiency for both water and fertilizer application technology under surface irrigation condition. (3) development of surface irrigation devices, including development of the field water flowing monitor device, development of the field control device and the fertilizer device for surface irrigation.

Prof. WANG Shumin

WANG Shumin is the Deputy Director General with charging of scientific research and international cooperation in the Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He is the professor for food legume germplasm resources. He won the MS degree in 1987 and Ph. D degree in 2001. Since 1987, he has been engaged in collection, evaluation, documentation and conservation of crop germplasm resources. He also does the research on genetic diversity assessment for common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). During this period of time, he published 5 scientific books and 50 papers and won 6 prizes of science and technology. Dr Wang Shumin attended over 15 international meetings related to the plant genetic resources for food and agriculture He is familiar with the rules and procedure related to material transfer agreement.

Prof. LI Jian Sheng

LI Jian Sheng, PhD, in plant genetics and breeding, a professor works on corn in plant genetics and breeding at China Agriculture University, and services as a director of the National Maize Improvement Center of China. Prof. Li graduated from Huanzhong Agricultural College, majored in Crop Science in 1977. During 1989-1992, he studied on special corn genetics, in Department of Agronomy of Purdue University, U.S.A as a visiting scientist with Dr. D. V. Glover. After returned to China, he worked in National Key Lab. of Crop Genetic Improvement at Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan from 1992 to 2000. His major research areas include: 1). to map QTL for important traits using molecular markers, such as oil, pro-vitamin A concentration, and to isolate and clone relative genes with linkage and association analysis. 2). to explore the biological basis of heterosis with marker technology, and to develop molecular markers for molecular breeding.

Prof. HAN Wen-Ting

Dr. HAN Wenting got his Ph.D. degree from Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Northwest Agricultural and Forest University, China in 2003. He is now an associate professor and associate dean of the Institute of Efficient Water Use for Arid Agriculture (IEWUAA), the Northwest Agricultural and Forest University. He is also a research fellow in the National Water Saving Irrigation Research Center of China. His research interests are: sprinkler irrigation, variable rate sprinkler, information technology applications in water saving irrigation systems. He has published 30 referred journal papers and holds 8 Chinese patents. He has successfully completed the supervision of 6 ME projects and currently supervising 17ME projects. He has obtained in excess of $20M in funding through the Chinese National Nature Science Foundation, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Education.

Prof. HUANG Guanhua

HUANG Guanhua PhD, is the Professor of Department of Irrigation and Drainage, China Agricultural University (CAU). He got his PhD degree, at the Department of Irrigation and Drainage of Wuhan University in 1995. His research interests focus on Water-saving Irrigation and its Environmental and Ecological Impact, Modeling of Agro-hydrological Processes, Impact of Climate Change and Human Activity on Agricultural Productivity. Since 1997, he has been working as the associate professor and the full professor at the Department of Irrigation and Drainage, the Dean of International College Beijing, and the Director of Chinese-Israel International Center for Research and Training in Agriculture. He also serves as the Chairman of Land & Water Section, International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystem Engineering (CIGR), editor of Paddy and Water Environment, associate editor and editorial board members for other three international journals. As a principal investigator, he has undertaken over 20 research projects from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Germany Science Foundation (DFG), Sino-Israel Joint Research Funding, and Sino-Portugal Research Funding, etc. He has published more than 160 peer reviewed papers, with which more than 40 were published in international journals, 8 books and proceedings. He has obtained 5 patents, 3 copyrights of software for mathematical modeling, 4 ministry level prizes for research.

Prof. LI Jian

Prof. LI Jian is the Director of State Key Laboratory of the Seedling Bioengineering and National Center of Economic Forest Seedling Speediness Reproduce Engineering and Technology Research, and also Board Chairman of Ningxia Forestry Institute LTD.CO. She got her Master degree at Xi'an International Studies University and Department of Biology of Agricultural University of Norway. She presides over National Key Scientific and Technological Projects “Selecting and Cultivating New and Excellent Seedless Cultivars of Wolfberry” and “Selecting and Cultivating New and Excellent Large-fruit Cultivars of Wolfberry”. She also provided the research “Water-saving and Drought-tolerant Ornamental Garden Plants” with scientific classification and definition. From 1985 to the present, she wrote more than 40 thesis and reports, published 2 monographs, and in 2007, she was rewarded He Liang & He Li Territorial Innovation Award.

Prof. LI Daoliang

Dr. LI Daoliang is a professor and director of EU-China Center for ICT in Agriculture (www.cicta.cn), China Agricultural University. His principal research interest is ICTs in agriculture，aquaculture, especially for information processing, smart sensors, wireless sensor network and automatic control system in fish farming, warehouse control and irrigation system. He is the Chair SIG of Advanced Information Processing in Agriculture, International Federation for Information Processing and member of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering. He also is the senior scientist in rural information society development of National informatization Office of China. He was the chairman of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th International conference on computer and computing technologies in agriculture (www.iccta.cn). He coordinated more than 30 international and national research projects, and has published more than 100 national, international journals papers and 8 books.

Mr. ZHAO Xiaopeng

Mr. ZHAO Xiaopeng is the Assistant President of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Mechanization Sciences (CAAMS). He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2000 from China Agricultural University. He got his master degree in Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Beijing University in 2008. Mr. Zhao Xiaopeng has been working since 2000. He used to be the Director Assistant and Deputy Project Manager of International Cooperation Department of CAAMS. Currently, Mr. Zhao Xiaopeng is also the Director of International Cooperation Department and Engineering Projects Department of CAAMS. He is in charge of many International S&T Cooperation Projects between China and many other countries as the Project Supervisor.

Prof. ZHANG Lanfang

Prof. ZHANG Lanfang, Deputy Director of International Cooperation Department of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Mechanization Sciences (CAAMS), engaged in agricultural product processing area for about 20 years. From 1990-2001, worked in China National Packaging & Food Machinery Corporation as the project manager, deputy manager, mainly engaged in international scientific collaboration in food and packaging machinery designing and manufacturing as well as international trade. From 2002-now, she has been working as the associate professor, professor and deputy director in the International Cooperation Department of CAAMS, mainly engaged in international S&T collaboration. She has been actively participated in agricultural S&T cooperation between MOST-USDA, MOST-AAFC and China-Sri Lanka. She has been involved in many international S&T joint projects. Prof. Zhang is the Secretary General of the Asian Association for Agricultural Engineering (AAAE).

From United States

Cathie Woteki, Under Secretary, USDA Research, Education, and Economics (REE), Department's Chief Scientist

Before joining USDA, Dr. Woteki served as Global Director of Scientific Affairs for Mars, Incorporated, where she managed the company's scientific policy and research on matters of health, nutrition, and food safety. From 2002-2005, she was Dean of Agriculture and Professor of Human Nutrition at Iowa State University. Dr. Woteki served as the first Under Secretary for Food Safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from 1997-2001, where she oversaw U.S. Government food safety policy development and USDA's continuity of operations planning. Dr. Woteki also served as the Deputy Under Secretary for REE at USDA in 1996.   Prior to going to USDA, Dr. Woteki served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as Deputy Associate Director for Science from 1994-1996. Dr. Woteki has also held positions in the National Center for Health Statistics of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1983-1990), the Human Nutrition Information Service at USDA (1981-1983), and as Director of the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences (1990-1993). In 1999, Dr. Woteki was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, where she has chaired the Food and Nutrition Board (2003-2005). She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Human Nutrition from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1974). Dr. Woteki received her B.S. in Chemistry from Mary Washington College (1969).

Caird E. Rexroad, Jr., Associate Administrator, USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

Dr. Rexroad is a native of West Virginia.  After completion of undergraduate studies in Animal Science at West Virginia University (1968) he served in the U.S. Army (1968-1970).  Following military service, he obtained a Ph.D. in Reproductive Physiology-Endocrinology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1970-1974).  His professional career has been entirely with the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture.  During his career as a bench scientist in ARS (1974-1997), Dr. Rexroad was instrumental in initiating research on the introduction of new genes into farm animals.  He served as a member of the research team that reported the first production of transgenic farm animals.  From 1992 to 1997, he served as Research Leader of the Gene Evaluation and Mapping Laboratory.  As Research Leader and research collaborator, he directed research on the discovery of DNA markers to improve selection for disease resistance and production traits in dairy cattle.  His research has resulted in over one hundred scientific publications and several book chapters.  He is a member of several professional societies and is past-president of the International Embryo Transfer Society.  He served as Associate Deputy Administrator for Animal Production, Product Value and Safety on the National Program Staff of the Agricultural Research Service from 1997 to 2004 where he managed programs on animal health, animal production, food safety, and human nutrition.  He served as the Associate Administrator for the Agricultural Research Service for National Programs from 2004 to 2009.  In that role he managed the Office of National Programs that plans the Agency’s research programs.  He currently serves as Associate Administrator for Research Operations, managing the ongoing research programs of the Agency.  He has been associated with the USDA-MOST Joint Working Group since its inception directing USDA-ARS participation in the collaborative research programs.

Dan R. Upchurch, Ph.D., Director, Southern Plains Area, USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

Dan R. Upchurch is the Director of the, Southern Plains Area covering Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, as well as a laboratory in Panama.   He earned his degrees from New Mexico State University, University of California-Davis, and Texas Tech University.  He began his career with ARS at the lab in Temple, Texas, after receiving his Masters.  In 1983 Dr. Upchurch transferred to the Plant Stress and Water Conservation Unit in Lubbock, Texas, and began his Ph.D. studies.  He was awarded a Ph.D. in soil science with a minor in mathematics in 1985.  He remained at the Lubbock location until October 2006 when he moved to College Station, Texas to become the Area Director.

Dr. Upchurch's personal research has focused on environmentally induced stress, specifically emphasizing root development and water uptake, remote stress detection, and irrigation management.

Kay Walker Simmons, Deputy Administrator, Crop Production and Protection, USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Office of National Programs

Dr. Simmons provides program planning and coordination leadership to ARS’s large portfolio of crop science, production, and protection research.  Previously, she served for ten years as the USDA-ARS National Program Leader for Plant Genetics and Grain Crops. Dr. Simmons also serves as a USDA-China MOST, Coordinator for Agricultural Biotechnology, ARS representative to the USDA Biotechnology Coordinating Group, Coordinator for U.S.-E.C. Taskforce on Biotechnology, Bioenergy Working Group; U.S. Representative, Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, Executive Committee; and on the Secretary’s Tri-Lateral Committee on Food Security for the U.S., Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Steven R. Shafer, Ph.D., Deputy Administrator, Natural Resources and Sustainable Agricultural Systems, Office of National Programs, USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

Dr. Shafer has devoted his entire professional career to public service in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Since 2008, he serves as Deputy Administrator for Natural Resources and Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the Office of National Programs, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), where he leads programmatic oversight for ARS’ research on soil, water, and air resources; global climate change; biofuels; rangelands, pastures, and forages; agricultural and industrial byproduct utilization; and agricultural systems and competitiveness. These ARS programs encompass more than $200 million in annually appropriated resources and 550 scientists conducting nearly 200 research projects at approximately 70 locations across the nation.  During 2009 - 2010, he served concurrently as Senior Advisor for Climate Science in the Office of the Chief Scientist, USDA, and continues to provide this scientific expertise to upper USDA administration. Prior to his current position, he was the ARS Midwest Area Director (2006-2008), the Agency’s senior line manager in an eight-state Area for all fiscal, personnel, and infrastructural resources, including the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, IL and the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, IA.  He was appointed to the Senior Executive Service of the U.S. Government in 2005, when he became the ARS Midwest Area’s Associate Director (2005-2006). He was the ARS National Program Leader for Global Change research (2000-2005, Beltsville, MD); Deputy Director for Environment and Plant Health in the USDA Office of Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis (1998-2000, Washington, DC); and a plant pest risk analysis specialist in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (1997-1998, Raleigh, NC).  During 1983-1997, he was a Research Plant Pathologist in ARS’ Air Quality-Plant Growth and Development Research Unit at Raleigh, NC, with concurrent USDA faculty appointment in the Plant Pathology and Soil Science departments at North Carolina State University. His research focused on interactions among atmospheric components such as ozone, acid rain, and carbon dioxide with plants, pathogenic and beneficial microorganisms, and soils.  He received B.S. Agr. and M.S. degrees from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University, all in plant pathology.  He is a native of Marion, Ohio.

Peggy M. Tomasula, Research Leader, Dairy and Functional Foods Research Unit, Eastern Regional Research Center, USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Wyndmoor, PA

Dr. Peggy Tomasula is Research Leader of the Dairy and Functional Foods Research Unit (DFFRU), ARS, USDA, Wyndmoor, PA. She joined ARS in 1986 as a Research Chemical Engineer specializing in process control of food processes. She currently leads a group that includes 11 SYs and 15 support scientists with the mission to solve critical problems in utilization of milk and of fruit and vegetable residues from specialty crops by developing high-quality, value-added products that help improve human health and well-being and control chronic diseases. As a Lead Scientist, she is working with the dairy industry and university partners on a new project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the fluid milk supply chain through exploration of emerging technologies in milk processing that maintain the milk nutrients. Other research thrusts in the group involve: biotechnology development of food processing microorganisms to produce dairy and other foods with improved safety, nutritional quality, flavor and texture; whey modification for improved thermoplastic extrusion into high-value products; exploring the implications of processing on the bioactivity and bioavailability of milk components; development of novel prebiotics that induce the growth of yogurt bacteria, inhibit food-borne pathogen adhesion and invasion, and play a role in the prevention of ulcerative colitis, cancer and obesity; and development of new plant polysaccharide-based products  for use in orthopedic tissue regeneration, colon-specific drug delivery, active food packaging and bioplastic composites.  Integral to the research is technology transfer to USDA and other action agencies and to the dairy, sugar beet, citrus, cranberry and other food industries.

Eduardo Bautista, Research Hydraulic Engineer, Arid Land Agricultural Research Center, USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Maricopa, AZ

Dr.  Bautista is a Research Hydraulic Engineer and Lead Scientist in the Water Management and Conservation Unit of the U. S. Arid Land Agricultural Research Center (ALARC), Maricopa, Arizona.  The overall focus of Dr. Bautista’s research is on the hydraulics and hydrology of on-farm and project-scale irrigation systems, and the development of concepts, and technologies for irrigation system assessment, and management. He leads the development of WinSRFR, a software package for the hydraulic analysis of surface irrigation systems.  Other specific research interests include: hydraulic simulation techniques for surface irrigation systems; evaluation and development of parameter estimation methods for surface irrigation; implications of infiltration variability for irrigation design and management; computerized control strategies for large water delivery systems, with particular emphasis on feedforward control techniques; social-organizational and policy aspects of irrigation management.  Dr. Bautista first joined ARS in 1992 as a Post-Doctoral Associate. He earned a B.Sc. in Agronomy-Plant Science from ITESM-Campus Queretaro, Mexico, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Davis.

Kris M Havstad, Research Leader, ARS Rangeland Research Unit, USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Las Cruces, NM

Dr. Kris Havstad has held the Research Leader position since 1988.  Prior to joining ARS he was a tenured faculty member at Montana State University.   Kris and his colleagues in Las Cruces, with their many collaborators, work on research questions with direct application to the conservation and management of land.  Their work has a specific focus on the science and resulting technologies for characterizing the ecological potentials of landscapes, the current status, or health, of these landscapes, and novel methods of restoration.  This research is supported not only by the ARS, but also other agencies within USDA, agencies within the US Department of Interior, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, non-profit conservation organizations, and other institutions and entities interested in land management and conservation.  These scientific pursuits occur across North America and four other continents, and represent a truly long term research program that will complete its 100^th year of operation within USDA in 2012.  Their program and its scientific productivity are thoroughly described at http://jornada.nmsu.edu.

Thomas J. Trout, Research Leader and Agricultural Engineer, Water Management Research Unit, USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Fort Collins, CO

Dr. Trout has been working at ARS with irrigation water management in Idaho, California, and Colorado for 30 years. He has a Ph.D.  from the Colorado State University, Agricultural Engineering (Soil and Water). His overseas experience includes Peru, Pakistan, India, Thailand, and Portugal. Dr. Trout’s research area is soil and water management in irrigated farming systems.  Specific research emphases include deficit irrigation practices and water productivity, crop water requirements and irrigation scheduling, remote sensing of crop water requirements; soil, water, and management factors that affect infiltration rates and water distribution uniformity under irrigation; good irrigation practices for horticultural crops; modeling and reducing irrigation-induced erosion; and developing systems and management practices to apply soil fumigants through drip irrigation systems. Professional, Scientific and Honorary Societies include the American Society of Agricultural and, the Biological Engineers (ASABE), the U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Irrigation Association, the American Society of Agronomy/Soil Science Society of America, and the
International Society of Horticultural Science.

Kristofer F. Dodge, International Affairs Specialist, Office of International Research Programs, USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

Mr. Kristofer Dodge is an International Affairs Specialist for ARS with current management responsibilities for extending Agency priorities to North Asia and the Middle East.  Since 2008, Mr. Dodge has overseen trust fund agreements with the Government of South Korea, coordinated research partnerships with the governments of China, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinian authority and extended the mission of the ARS National Programs to these regions when mutually beneficial.  Before working for ARS Mr. Dodge worked for the Foreign Agriculture Service at the USDA for four years and previously as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines.  He holds a B.S. from the University of Colorado and a M.A. from the School of International Service at American University.

Dan Cotton, Director of the National eXtension Initiative

Mr. Cotton leads this internet-based educational network integral to the national community-based Cooperative Extension System. Prior to eXtension, Cotton served as Director of Communications and Information Technology in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. There he founded the Distributed Environments for Active Learning Laboratory, which assists faculty in the development of internet-based active learning environments. While associated with the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC), he served as a co-PI for the National Science Foundation Program: Advanced Internet Satellite Extension Project (AISEP). He has worked with the Missouri Cooperative Extension Service and also was computer coordinator for the Illinois Cooperative Extension Service, where he helped develop the organization’s statewide computer network and technology resources, and assisted the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in developing an internet-based agricultural production support system. For 27 years he has worked as a leader in advancing the use of information technology in the development and delivery of education.