[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1490694432185{padding-bottom: 50px !important;}”][vc_column el_class=”qsv-text”][vc_column_text css_animation=”fadeIn”]The WFP announced that Dr. Matthew Rouse, a researcher with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS), is the winner of the 2018 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, Endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_single_image image=”18067″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeIn”][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_column_text css_animation=”fadeIn”]Over the past six years, the World Food Prize Dr. Norman Borlaug Field Award for Field Research and Application has emerged as the premier recognition in the world for young agricultural scientists under the age of 40.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”40px”][vc_single_image image=”18074″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeIn”][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_column_text css_animation=”fadeIn”]The presentation of the award in this its 7th year to Dr. Matthew Rouse for his remarkable achievements in fighting the stem rust pathogen further reinforces the significant global importance of his accomplishments and the award itself.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”40px”][vc_single_image image=”18073″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeIn”][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_column_text css_animation=”fadeIn”]Dr. Rouse is a Research Plant Pathologist at USDA-ARS Cereal Disease Lab in St. Paul, MN and an adjunct associate professor at the Univ. of Minnesota.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_single_image image=”18072″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeIn”][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_column_text css_animation=”fadeIn”]His work, which aims to prevent cereal yield losses, focuses on wheat and barley resistance to stem rust and physiologic specialization of the barley leaf rust pathogen in the United States.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”40px”][vc_single_image image=”18071″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeIn”][vc_empty_space height=”40px”][vc_single_image image=”18070″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeIn”][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_column_text css_animation=”fadeIn”]His discoveries as a young scientist working in the lab as well as in the fields alongside poor farmers saved millions of lives and made life possible for millions more.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”40px”][vc_single_image image=”18069″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeIn”][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_column_text css_animation=”fadeIn”]Today, we honor the work of Dr. Matthew Rouse of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service for his important work to contain and reduce the impact of the devastating Ug99 wheat stem rust pathogen.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”40px”][vc_single_image image=”18068″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeIn”][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_column_text css_animation=”fadeIn”]Through his contributions to science and food security, Dr. Rouse upholds the same values demonstrated by Dr. Borlaug—namely, that food is the moral right of everyone born into this world.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]