Launch Director’s Report: Progress in Challenging Times

Welcome to 2021. We all know how difficult 2020 was and we anxiously await how 2021 will be different. I truly hope you have a safe and productive year.

In spite of all the challenges, the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative made great strides on many fronts. Let’s start with the people.

People Progress
The search for our permanent Executive Director was advancing on schedule until COVID hit and essentially put the search on hold. The search committee, led by Steve Lommel, had selected three final candidates to visit NC State for their final public interview, but they could not make it here due to the pandemic. We are still in a holding pattern but hope to resume the search soon.

Given the fact that we do not have a permanent Executive Director in place, we moved ahead and selected four platform directors for the N.C. PSI. These amazing faculty will direct the science and outreach efforts of the initiative. The platform directors are Drs: Chris Reberg-Horton for the resilient agricultural systems platform; Ross Sozzani for the plant improvement platform; Cranos Williams for the data-driven plant science platform and Hannah Burrack for the N.C. PSI education and outreach platform. In addition, Geoff Bock, our longtime project manager and N.C. PSI’s first employee, was selected as the interim director of operations for the NC State Plant Sciences Building. Congratulations to all.

Building Momentum
Speaking of the building, we are steaming towards the completion of this world-class facility, which will be home to many interdisciplinary and cross-college research teams addressing some of our grandest challenges in agriculture and the plant sciences. Here is a snapshot of its progress as of early February.

The building continues to be on track for both time and budget – which is fantastic news. On February 3, we were 64% complete. There have been very few delays with any aspect of the building and it continues to look like we will be up and running in one year. February of 2022 is our target date for occupancy.

On a final note, December 31 marked my last day as a full-time employee for the N.C. PSI. At the request of Dean Linton and Steve Lommel, I am being retained in a part-time capacity for an additional six months until the permanent director has been hired. I want to thank my NC State colleagues, the industry partners and everyone else who I had the privilege to work alongside or help in the groundwork of building this initiative. I appreciate the opportunity to work for Dean Linton in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and can honestly say that my 3.5 years on this project gave me some of the most rewarding times of my career.

I will not be far away and am always available to talk and continue to add my two cents to make the N.C. PSI and NC State the best place in the world to do plant sciences.

Be safe.
Steve Briggs