SEE Biotech October 2002 Conference

	Food
	Land
	and Culture

Speaker Biographies

Lac Courte Oreilles Casino and Convention Center
Oct 3-4, 2002

Brad Barham is a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also co-director of Program on Agricultural Technology Studies, a research and extension unit at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cooperative Extension, UW-Madison. He currently studies agricultural biotechnology issues at both farm and industry levels, examining the determinants of rBST and GMO adoption patterns among Wisconsin dairy farmers. Another research priority is the social and economic implications of the expansion of university production of patents, especially in agricultural biotechnology and biotechnology.

Chris Boerboom is a professor and extension weed scientist in the Agronomy Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, which included research on increasing the herbicide tolerance of birdsfoot trefoil. He then worked for Washington State University in the Palouse region as an extension weed scientist prior to joining the faculty at Wisconsin. His primary responsibilities at Wisconsin are in extension education for annual weed management in corn and soybean. He has evaluated weed management programs in corn and soybean that were genetically engineered for herbicide resistance and has also collaborated on herbicide resistant weed research.

Robert Bush received his M.D. from West Virginia University. He completed his training in internal medicine and allergy and immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After spending a year in private practice, he joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1978 where he is currently professor of medicine and chief of allergy at the Wm. S. Middleton VA Hospital. He is co-director of the Allergy/Immunology Training Program. He also holds an appointment as professor in the Department of Food Microbiology and Toxicology, Food Research Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Bush has been an active member of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. He currently chairs the Training Program Directorsç Committee. He is a former chair of the Environmental and Occupational Disease Interest Section, the VA Allergists Committee, the Indoor Allergens Committee, and the Training Program Directorçs In-Training Examination Subcommittee. He is a director of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology and formerly served on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Dr. Bush has conducted research on food allergy issues and has published studies on the allergic potential of genetically modified foods.

Fred Buttel is professor of rural sociology and professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also do-director of the Program on Agricultural Technology Studies at UW-Madison and a senior fellow at the Center on World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE). Buttel has had a long-standing interest in environmental sociology, rural sociology and the sociology of the environmental and agricultural sciences. He is particularly active in research on the social implications of agricultural biotechnology in the U.S. and across the world. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1987. He is past president of the Rural Sociological Society, past president of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society, former chair of the Section on Environment and Technology of the American Sociological Association, and past president of the Environment and Society Research Committee (RC 24) of the International Sociological Association (1998-2002). Buttel is co-editor of Society and Natural Resources, and editor of Research in Rural Sociology and Development. He is author or editor of 14 books, including Of Frankenfoods and Golden Rice: Risks, Rewards, and Realities of Genetically Modified Foods (2001). He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Environmental Protection Agency for the registration of Bt crops.

Jim Coors joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Agronomy in 1983 after receiving a Ph.D. in plant breeding and biometry from Cornell University. He is a member of the U.W. Plant Breeding and Genetics Program. His research involves the development of productive maize germplasm that uses desirable accessions from all regions of the world. He develops selection methods for complex traits such as grain yield, pest resistance and nutritional value and operates an applied breeding program to create silage germplasm with improved yield and quality. Teaching activities include two graduate level courses in plant breeding: "Selection Theory for Quantitative Traits in Plants", and "Biometrical Procedures for Plant Breeders", as well seminar series and graduate student advising.

Walter Fehr is a Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Agriculture at Iowa State University where he teaches and conducts research in plant breeding, specializing in soybean breeding and genetics. He also is the director of the Office of Biotechnology that assists departments with the hiring of new biotechnology faculty, provides graduate fellowships for outstanding students, operates state-of-the-art instrumentation facilities for research, conducts an innovative education program for K-12 teachers and extension personnel, coordinates technology transfer with industry, and supports an active bioethics program.

Walter Fehr obtained a B.S. degree in agronomy and an M.S. degree in plant breeding and genetics from the University of Minnesota. After completion of his studies, he worked in the Republic of Congo where he taught agronomy at the Congo Polytechnic Institute. When he returned to the United States, Dr. Fehr completed a Ph.D. degree in plant breeding and cytogenetics at Iowa State University and became a faculty member.

Bob Griffin is a professor in the College of Communication at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI, and has served for 20 years as director of the college's Center for Mass Media Research. He teaches communication theory, research methods, and health, science and environmental communication at intermediate and advanced levels and once served for five years as college graduate program director.

In 1997, he received the university's highest honor for career-long teaching quality, the Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence ("Teacher of the Year Award"). Griffin earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and specializes in researching environmental, energy and health risk communication. Over the past decade he has served as principal investigator for a series of studies into communication about environmental health risks funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Safety Council's Environmental Health Center and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, collaborating with Sharon Dunwoody (UW-Madison) and others. He is also co-principal investigator on an EPA-funded project investigating public responses to flooding risks and ecological quality in urban watersheds.

Among his many papers and publications is a risk communication research presentation with Dunwoody at the National Academy of Sciences, sponsored by the NAS Commission on Geoscience, Environment and Resources.

Brent McCown has been at UW-Madison for more than three decades and continues to maintain an ever-changing program that is a mix of undergraduate instruction, woody and perennial plant research, university governance, and outreach. He teaches two major beginning undergraduate crop biology courses that cover the spectrum from molecular biology to crop production to aesthetics to environmental issues. His research interests parallel this spectrum and include genetic improvement of woody ornamentals, genetic improvement of fruits (cranberry), production strategies for pharmaceutically-important herbaceous perennial herbs (e.g. goldenseal) used as alternative crops, and blending native community restoration with landscape and urban horticulture.

McCown's lab is noted for developing the early technologies that led to the first successful demonstrations of genetic engineering for long-lived perennial plants. Professor McCown now holds the Gottschalk Distinguished Research Chair in CALS. Recently, he was selected to be director of the UW Center for Integrated Agricultural systems, a unit focusing on research and outreach appropriate for small to medium-sized producers.

McCown has been very active in the governing of the UW-Madison and the UW-System by participating in various shared-governance activities. In addition, he is currently president of PROFS, the lobbying organization for the UW-Madison faculty. Outside of the U.W., Brent has participated as a member of the Boards of Directors or Scientific Advisory Boards of a number of companies, some of which he helped start. He and his wife, Deborah, manage several hundred acres of meadows and commercial woodlands in southwestern Wisconsin.

Loren Miller is a research associate in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. After receiving his Ph.D. from the department, he left to participate in genetic mapping of the swine genome before returning to follow his interest in fisheries conservation genetics. He applies genetic principles and techniques to address questions in fisheries management and ecology. He is currently conducting numerous studies using molecular genetic

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s to assess genetic population structure, to identify species and their hybrids, and to determine the source population or parentage of individuals. He collaborates closely with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on projects of management interest including evaluation of walleye restoration stocking in the Red Lakes, assessment of genetic variation in Minnesota brook trout populations, and analysis of hybridization between black and white crappie. He also applies genetic principles to the management of hatchery programs. Recent activities in this area include co-authoring the chapter Genetic Guidelines for Hatchery Supplementation Programs in a fisheries genetics textbook, participating in an international expert consultation on Biosafety and Environmental Impact of Genetic Enhancement and Introduction of Improved Strains of Tilapia / Exotics in Africa, and monitoring genetic change in a federal brook trout hatchery program.

Leslie Ramczyk

Jerry Smith

Robert Streiffer Robert Streiffer is an assistant professor of philosophy and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Ú He also holds an affiliate appointment with the Department of Medical Sciences in UW-Madison's School of Veterinary Sciences. He developed a new course on the ethics of agricultural biotechnology. His research ranges from traditional philosophical issues such as moral relativism to issues in applied ethics and public policy arising from agricultural biotechnology. He is currently working on articles on academic freedom and the regulation of academic biotechnology research; on the implications of principles of liberal neutrality for the regulation of genetically engineered food; on the political and ethical relevance of public opinion polls about genetically engineered food; and on mandatory labeling proposals. He received his Ph.D. in ethics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lydia Zepeda is a professor in the Department of Consumer Science and chair of Development Studies at UW-Madison. She is a faculty affiliate of the Institute for Environmental Studies, the Latin American Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program, Development Studies and Women's Studies, all at the UW Madison. She was formerly an economist in the Agricultural Sector in Economic Development Service of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, and a Fulbright scholar and visiting researcher at the University of Costa Rica. She received her Ph.D. in agricultural economics, with specialties in econometrics and operations research, from the University of California at Davis in 1988. Her M.S. in agricultural economics with a specialty in development is also from U.C. Davis, 1982, and her B.S. summa cum laude in agricultural economics is from Washington State University, 1981. Her research interests include: technology adoption in agriculture, especially biotechnology; consumer attitudes and risk perceptions towards agricultural technology; the impact of technology and investment on agricultural productivity and farming structure; the role of women in farm decisionmaking; children's labor supply on family farms; and time use. She teaches family and household economics and research methods.

Tom Zinnen is a biotechnology policy and outreach specialist with the University of Wisconsin Biotechnology Center and UW-Extension. He also serves as a food science communicator for the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), a professional organization with 28,000 members. He provides materials and training on the technical and social impacts of biotechnology. Zinnen studied biology at UW-Platteville and plant pathology at the University of Illinois. He received a Ph.D. for work in plant virology at UW-Madison in 1985. After a year as a post doctoral fellow at Agrigenetics in Madison, Zinnen taught and did research at the Plant Molecular Biology Center of Northern Illinois University at DeKalb. In 1991 he took his current position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension. From September 2000 through August 2001 he served as IFTçs Congressional Science Fellow with the House Committee on Agriculture in Washington D.C.


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