Current issues in land-grant research and recognition of award-winning researchers in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture will take center stage at the 2012 Celebration of Land-Grant Research.

Hosted by the college’s research office, the celebration will take place at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 15 in Seay Auditorium in the UK Agricultural Science Center. After a keynote address, the land-grant celebration will continue with the announcement of the 2012 recipients of the Bobby Pass Excellence in Grantsmanship Award, High Impact Research/Extension Award and the Prestigious Research Paper Award.

The keynote speaker is Sonny Ramaswamy, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. As part of USDA’s research, education, and extension mission, he oversees NIFA funds for a wide range of extramural research, education and extension projects that address the needs of farmers, ranchers and agricultural producers.

Prior to joining NIFA, Ramaswamy served as dean of Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences and as director of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station. Earlier in his career, Ramaswamy was associate dean of the Purdue University College of Agriculture and directed the university's agricultural research. Prior to that he served as head of Kansas State University’s Department of Entomology, on the faculty of Mississippi State University and as a research associate at Michigan State University. As an insect physiologist, he worked on the integrative reproductive biology of insects.

Ramaswamy has received research grants from many federal agencies, including USDA, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, and the United States Agency for International Development, as well as from state agencies, commodity groups and industry groups. He has published nearly 150 journal articles, book chapters and a book. He has received a number of awards and honors as a scientist and department head, including being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Fellow of the Entomological Society of America; and Distinguished Graduate Alumnus of Cook College, Rutgers University.

He received a Bachelor of Science in agriculture and a Master of Science in entomology from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India, and his doctorate in entomology from Rutgers University. He is also a graduate of the University of Nebraska’s New Academic Chair’s Program and Harvard University’s Management Development Program.