by Mollie Simon 

Since its founding in 1222, the University of Padua, or the Università degli Studi di Padova in Italian, has been home to countless experimenters, including Copernicus and Galileo. Soon, University of Georgia students will be able to conduct research at this same institution. By the end of 2015, UGA and University of Padua plan to sign a "memorandum of understanding" creating a dual master's degree in sustainable agriculture, funded in part by the United States Department of Agriculture.

George Vellidis, whose UGA lab in Tifton has received more than $15.4 million in research funding, is spearheading the program's development. He said he hopes to have the first students enter the dual degree in fall 2016. "Agriculture is an international enterprise," said Vellidis, who studies how to better address variability in fields through precision agriculture. "We all need to eat, and our population is expected to reach critical levels by 2050. We hope these types of partnerships can provide momentum for solving global food production problems."

Read more

Source: http://www.redandblack.com/