October 21, 2008

Ganesan Srinivasan, director of the University Agricultural Laboratory at California State University, Fresno, was awarded the 2008 Fellow of the Crop Science Society of America at the society’s annual meeting Oct. 5-9 in Houston.

Srinivasan was one of 10 fellows selected for the organization’s highest honor, placing him among an elite group of agricultural researchers around the world. He was recognized for his career contribution to teaching, research, extension and leadership in crop science and his accomplishments at Fresno State.

Srinivasan has authored or co-authored 47 refereed journal articles, five book chapters and more than 60 abstracts. During his more than 20 years of service to international agriculture, he has helped develop hundreds of improved maize cultivars with high yield and improved protein quality for the tropical, subtropical and highland ecologies. These varieties are grown by farmers in developing areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America on millions of acres.

Srinivasan has served as director of the 1,000-acre University Farm in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology at Fresno State since August 2005. The farm is comprised of more than 25 enterprises that provide students with hand-on learning in world-class agriculture.

He also is an adjunct faculty member in Fresno State’s Department of Plant Sciences, teaches a graduate-level course in plant breeding and conducts research on conservation tillage in sweet corn.

Prior to joining Fresno State, he served as principal scientist and associate director of the Maize Program at the Mexico-based International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement.

He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in agriculture from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in India, a doctorate in plant breeding from the University of Hawaii and an executive MBA from Purdue University.