Dr. James Rasmussen, chairman of the SAU Department of Biology, explains the use of the equipment.
Magnolia, Ark – The Southern Arkansas University Foundation recently received $10,150 from the Monsanto Fund, a private foundation and the philanthropic arm of Monsanto Company, to purchase equipment for use by the Biology Department in the new SAU Science Center, which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2010.
“SAU Foundation is pleased to team up with the Monsanto Fund to help provide the latest in teaching and laboratory equipment for the new University Science Center,” said Jeanie Bismark, Executive Director of the Foundation. “Agricultural education is an important part of the University’s mission. The new building will provide a centralized facility for the study of the interrelated energy sciences: chemistry, physics, and biology, and will support teaching in the agri-sciences, including plant production.”
Included in the equipment are seven Vernier Lab Quest packages with appropriate sensors and biochambers. The equipment will be utilized by the SAU Biology Department.
“Monsanto has targeted 2030 as a goal for doubling yields in our four core crops of corn, soybeans, cotton and canola. To reach that goal Monsanto will need the brightest and most talented future scientists available,” said Dr. Floyd Hancock, Soybean Breeding Manager of the Monsanto facility at Stuttgart, Ark. “Supporting education is a way that Monsanto can help insure that the talent needed to reach our goal is available.”
The Monsanto Fund is the philanthropic arm of the Monsanto Company. Incorporated in 1964, the Fund’s primary objective is to improve the lives of people by bridging the gap between their needs and their resources. The Monsanto Fund is focused on grant-making in four main areas: nutritional well-being through agriculture; science education, primarily on professional development for teachers; healthy environment, which includes conservation, protection of biodiversity, clean water and restoration of wildlife habitat; and improving the quality of life in communities where Monsanto employees live and work. To learn more about the Monsato Fund, visit http://www.monsantofund.org/asp/welcome.asp.
