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Multi-million-dollar Smith Institute To Be Dedicated At Hebrew University Agriculture Faculty

October 20, 2003

The multi-million-dollar Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture will be dedicated on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at the Hebrew University Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences in Rehovot.

The dedication includes the inauguration of two new 3,250-square-meter, three-story plant sciences buildings and the renovation of an existing building to which the new buildings are connected. The new, $11-million facility creates much needed teaching and research space, including specialized, advanced laboratories. The Smith Institute is the largest of its kind in Israel and fosters interdisciplinary approaches to pressing issues of world hunger and renewable natural resources.

Prof. Arie Altman, head of the Smith Institute, noted that by the year 2050, the world's population is expected to reach 10 billion people, as compared to some six billion today. "Regular" agricultural means will not have the capacity to feed such a population, particularly in the developing countries, and therefore only advanced agricultural scientific techniques, based on a full understanding of the genome of food plants and the use of biotechnology, can provide for the world's food needs, he said. Even today, said Prof. Altman, more people in the world die from hunger and diseases caused by malnutrition than from any other cause. The situation is further aggravated, he said, due to such factors as water shortages, increased water salinity, desertification and temperature changes.

Participating in the dedication will be Robert H. Smith and his wife Clarice. Robert Smith is a former chairman of the Hebrew University's Board of Governors (1981-85) and one of the university's benefactors. Over the years, he and his family have made significant contributions to the advancement of the Hebrew University's teaching and research missions in various fields. In 1985, Smith was presented with an honorary doctor of philosophy degree by the university.

A devoted friend of Israel, Robert H. Smith has also served for many years as a leader of the Jewish community of Washington and is a past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. He also has served in leadership positions in the arts and education in the U.S.   

Opening the day's events will be an international conference on "Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in the 21st Century: the Contribution of Plant Biotechnology." The conference will feature internationally known food biotechnology experts from Israel, the U.S., Europe and the Far East. Among those   who will speak on new developments in the field are:

Prof. Zhihong Xu, president of Peking University, China, who will lecture on rice genomics in China. Prof. Xu is chairman of the Chinese Society of Cell Biology, vice-chairman of the Chinese Society of Botany, and chairman of the Chinese National Committee of Man and Biosphere (MAB), UNESCO. He serves as president of the International Association of Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology (IAPTC&B).

Dr. Luis Herrera-Estrella, director of the Centro de Investigaci'³n y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN in Mexico. Dr. Herrera-Estrella has made important contributions to the field of plant molecular biology, especially in the study of gene regulation and in the development of gene transfer methods. Dr. Herrera-Estrella's current research is now primarily focused on the development of transgenic plants better adapted to marginal soils.

Prof. Robert Goldberg, distinguished professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Goldberg is a plant molecular biologist whose research has provided a conceptual foundation for the processes that regulate gene expression in higher plants. In collaboration with scientists at Plant Genetic Systems, in Gent, Belgium, he utilized genes identified in his laboratory to develop a novel system to genetically engineer for male fertility control in crop plants. This system was used to develop new hybrid varieties of canola plants that are in commercial production and have significantly increased yields of oil.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem