Biography:
ADEC is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Vance Watson of
Mississippi State University to the ADEC Board of Directors. Dr. Watson
is vice president for agriculture, forestry and veterinary medicine. He
also serves as dean of the college of agriculture and life sciences,
director of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station
(MAFES), and interim director of the Mississippi State University
Extension Service.
A 40-year MSU employee, Watson was director of the experiment station
from 1996 until becoming interim vice president in January 2002. A
Missouri native, he graduated from Southeast Missouri State University
in 1964 with a degree in general agriculture and earned a master of
science degree in agronomy at the University of Missouri in 1966. He
completed a doctorate in agronomy with a minor in botany at MSU in 1969.
Starting his career as an assistant agronomist with MAFES in 1966,
Watson was appointed assistant professor of agronomy in 1969. He
advanced to the rank of professor of agronomy and was appointed
agronomist in 1977. He became assistant to the MAFES director in 1982
with responsibility for coordinating forage programs.
In 1987 he took on added duties as head of the MAFES auxiliary units
responsible for foundation seed stocks and variety evaluations. In 1990
he was appointed head of the MAFES main station, and in 1992 he became
head of MAFES research support units. In 1995 he was appointed MAFES
assistant director for research support and became director in 1996.
He is the author of more than 300 publications, including six textbook
chapters. He has traveled in more than 50 countries on a variety of
agricultural missions. He served five years as executive vice president
of the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies, an
international organization for genetic standards and certification of
3,500 varieties of crops produced in nine countries.
He was a member of the United States delegation for setting world policy
on seed certification and served as team leader for review of Peace
Corps agricultural programs in Thailand for the U.S. State Department.
He is a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science
Society of America and received the First Mississippi Corporation Award
for outstanding MAFES worker and the MSU Alumni Association Award for
excellence in research. He has been named professor of the year by two
different student organizations.
Watson and his wife Jo Ann have three children and seven grandchildren.
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