The Governor’s University Research Initiative (GURI) made it possible for Herrera-Estrella to come to Texas Tech as the newest researcher in the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources.
WHAT: A reception welcoming Luis Rafael Herrera-Estrella, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the newest faculty member of the Department of Plant and Soil Science within the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources.
WHEN: 3 p.m. Wednesday (Aug. 22)
WHERE: Red Raider Ballroom, Student Union Building, Texas Tech University
EVENT: Texas Tech University President Lawrence Schovanec and other members of the administration will be available to the media at a reception for Luis Rafael Herrera-Estrella as the newest faculty member in the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources' (CASNR) Department of Plant and Soil Science.
Herrera-Estrella, Texas Tech's first member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), comes to the university after serving as the director and full professor of the National Laboratory of Genomics for Biodiversity (LANGEBIO) in Guanajuato, Mexico. He is widely regarded as one of the world's top researchers in the field of plant molecular biology.
Herrera-Estrella is known and respected worldwide for his work in cotton genomics, having earned the distinction in 2015 as one of the 100 most influential people in biotechnology by Scientific American magazine. A holder of 15 patents, he has published more than 180 research papers and 47 book chapters and other reviews and has delivered more than 200 presentations on his work.
His arrival at Texas Tech was facilitated thanks to a $5 million grant Texas Tech received from the State of Texas Governor's University Research Initiative (GURI), which was created in 2015 by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's Office of Economic Development & Tourism and the state legislature to encourage universities to bring the world's top researchers in the areas of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) to Texas. Texas Tech matched the GURI grant to bring Herrera-Estrella to Lubbock.
Photos and video highlights of the reception and remarks delivered by Schovanec, Herrera-Estrella and other administrators will be available on Texas Tech University's FTP site. For FTP login information, please email Allison Hirth.
Read more about Herrera-Estrella and the GURI here.
