Each year the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) joins with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) to sponsor a lecture presented at the APLU annual meeting.  The lecture honors one of the three most important historical figures of the land-grant university system, William Henry Hatch for research, Seaman A. Knapp for extension, and Justin Smith Morrill for whom the Morrill Act, which created the Land-Grant University system, is named.  In 2011, the normal rotation would honor William Henry Hatch; however, because 2012 marks the 150th anniversary passage of the Morrill Act, both NIFA and APLU agreed to move the Morrill Lecture to the fall of 2011 to serve as the kickoff for the Morrill Act Sesquicentennial Celebration. NIFA and APLU are seeking lecturer nominations to honor Justin Smith Morrill.

The 2011 Justin Smith Morrill Lecture will be presented at the APLU annual meeting in San Francisco, November 13-15. The Lectureship is awarded to honor outstanding contemporary leadership in teaching and significant contributions as an educator. NIFA seeks to identify potential topics and a dynamic speaker who can provoke discussion among meeting participants and prepare a formal lecture. The lecture will be published on the NIFA website for public viewing. Please share this information with colleagues outside of the agricultural research, education, and extension system, including stakeholders, foundations, public interest groups, or international organizations. Nominations are encouraged from all sources.

Nominations should include one-page vitae on the nominee, a description of his or her major accomplishments and how these are pertinent to advancing excellence in higher education in the food and agricultural sciences, and contact information for both the nominee and the nominator. Nominations are due by July 14, 2011, and should be forwarded electronically to Kimberly Whittet (kwhittet@nifa.usda.gov), management and policy specialist in NIFA’s Office of the Director. A committee will be appointed to review the submissions and narrow the scope of the recommendations in order to make a final decision.