The Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Lecture is a collaboration between AAAS, RMF, and the World Food Prize Foundation. The annual lecture welcomes distinguished speakers to explore the environmental and societal challenges facing our planet through the lens of agricultural innovation and its applications in a global context. This year’s virtual lecture will focus on zoonotic diseases and the role of agricultural research in preventing future pandemics and feature addresses by Dr. Andrew Peter Dobson, Princeton University; Dr. Xiang-Jin Meng, Virginia Tech; and, Dr. James A. Roth, Iowa State University.
2021 Lecture: Zoonotic Diseases and the Role of Agricultural Research in Preventing Future Pandemics
Remarks will be followed by a panel discussion and live Q&A session moderated by Ilaria Capua, DVM, Ph.D., Professor, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Director of the One Health Center of Excellence, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida.
Please contact the AAAS Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues at epicenter@aaas.org with any questions about this year’s lecture.
Speakers
Andrew Peter Dobson, D.Phil., is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. Dr. Dobson is also external faculty at the Santa Fe Institute, external A.D. White Professor at Cornell University, and a visiting Chair in Sustainable Development at IMéRA at the University of Aix-Provence in Marseille.
Xiang-Jin Meng, MD, MS, Ph.D., is a University Distinguished Professor of Molecular Virology at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Meng is also a Professor of Internal Medicine at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and the Founding Director of the Center for Emerging, Zoonotic and Arthropod-borne Pathogens (CeZAP) at Virginia Tech.
James A. Roth, DVM, MS, PhD, Diplomate ACVM, is the Clarence Hartley Covault Distinguished Professor in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University. Dr. Roth is also the Director of the Center for Food Security and Public Health and the Executive Director of the Institute for International Cooperation in Animal Biologics.
THE CHARLES VALENTINE RILEY MEMORIAL LECTURE SERIES
In 2008, the Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Foundation (RMF) endowed the Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Lecture at AAAS in honor of Professor Riley’s legacy as a “whole picture” person with a vision for enhancing agriculture through scientific knowledge.
The Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Lecture is a collaboration between AAAS, RMF, and the World Food Prize Foundation (WFPF), an organization whose fundamental goal is to support efforts toward an adequate supply and availability of nutritious food for the burgeoning world population in the 21st century. The annual lecture welcomes distinguished speakers to explore the environmental and societal challenges facing our planet through the lens of agricultural innovation and its applications in a global context.
To learn more about Charles Riley, visit the Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Foundation or the Charles Valentine Riley Collection in the USDA National Agricultural Library.