Annual Meeting 2004
The 40th Annual Meeting of
The Association for International Agriculture 
and Rural Development

"Progress in International Agriculture and Rural Development"
Speakers and Panelists

Dr. Hugh Popenoe
Professor Emeritus
University of Florida

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Dr. Popenoe attended the University of California at Davis and graduated with a major in irrigation in 1951. He worked in Thailand for a year as a soil scientist before serving two years in the U.S. Army Engineers.

In 1960 he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Florida and was employed by the Soils Department. His dissertation was on the effects of shifting cultivation on soils in Guatemala. After directing the Caribbean Research Program he was appointed Director of the Center for Tropical Agriculture in 1965 and Director of International Programs in Agriculture in 1966. In addition he initiated and was Director of the Florida Sea Grant College from 1971 to 1978.

At the national level he chaired the Joint Committee of Agricultural Research and Development of the Board of International Food and Development. He also served on the Board of Science and Development of the National Research Council and chaired the Advisory Committee on

 Technology Innovation. Hugh was the chairman or committee member of 16 NRC publications. He was also member of the NSF International Advisory Committee. Hugh is a founder and current president of the American Water Buffalo Association.

Internationally, Hugh was a trustee of the International Foundation for Science. He was a founding board member of the Organization for Tropical Studies and is a past president and current board member of Zamorano, Honduras. He is executive officer of the International Buffalo Federation and has traveled and worked in most of the tropical countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Hugh is a fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, the American Society of Agronomy, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and American Geographical Society. He has been awarded the Science Pioneer Prize of the Egyptian Veterinary Association for Buffalo Development.

Currently, Hugh is a Professor in the Soils, Agronomy and Geography departments. He teaches courses in Tropical Soil Management and Ethnoecology and was named UF Professor of the Year in Agriculture in 1964. He was a Visiting Lecturer on Tropical Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health for four years.