Greg Horstmeier News Director 573-884-1846 horstmeierg@missouri.edu May 13, 2005 Editor’s Note: Nguyen (pronounced 'win') will return to MU on May 31. MU plant scientists to collaborate on long-term project with Vietnam COLUMBIA, Mo. - University of Missouri plant scientists are leading a delegation of researchers to Vietnam next week on the first step of a five-year collaborative agreement with researchers and educators in that country. In March, MU officials signed a memorandum of understanding with the Vietnam Education Foundation, a special initiative by the U.S. Congress to bring the United States and Vietnam closer through science, technology and education. The foundation supports 50 to 60 Vietnamese students per year to attend U.S. graduate schools, said Henry Nguyen, soybean genetics researcher and director of the National Center for Soybean Biotechnology at MU. Nguyen will lead the group from MU, the University of Illinois, the University of Nebraska and the United States Department of Agriculture. The scientists will participate in research seminars with colleagues from the Vietnam Agricultural Research Institute in Hanoi and at Cantho University, Cantho City, in the heart of the Mekong Delta. Scientists will share the latest in soybean genetics research, biotechnology lab techniques and soybean-breeding methods. "Since the U.S. and Vietnam resumed relations, a lot of things have happened," in science as well as joint scientific ventures by both countries, Nguyen said. "Agricultural biotechnology is something (Vietnamese scientists) are very keen on." "The alliance is a select group of leading (U.S.) universities that share VEF’s mission," Kien Pham, executive director of the foundation, said in a statement regarding the memorandum of understanding. "Together we will help transform science and technology in Vietnam, and in that process, serve as enduring bridges between the two countries." In addition to their presentations on science, Nguyen and Gary Stacey, a Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council Endowed Professor in Soybean Genetics, will be examining soybean research across the country. They will pay particular attention to plots cooperatively developed between MU and Vietnamese researchers evaluating U.S. soybean varieties for Asian soybean rust resistance. Soybean rust, a potentially devastating crop disease, was found in the United States for the first time in 2004 following the Atlantic hurricane season. A strain of the disease is common in Vietnam, creating a natural, reliable test for U.S. seeds with potential rust resistance. The U.S. scientists also will meet with graduate students to discuss their interest in attending MU and other VEF universities. "The (MOU) represents a way to recruit good students to MU," Nguyen said. The trip will be special for the soybean genetics expert, who left Cantho 30 years ago on a fishing boat at the end of the Vietnam war. Nguyen eventually came to the United States, worked his way through Penn State University and earned his doctorate in agronomy from MU in 1982. He returned to MU in 2002 to become an MSMC endowed professor and to lead the creation of the national soybean research center here. Source: Henry Nguyen (573) 882-5074 Return to Current News Releases College of Agriculture Food and Natural Resources AgEBB