UF conference center to be unveiled at Plant Science Research and Education Unit

May 8, 2012

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida’s 1,000-acre Plant Science Research and Education Unit now has a conference center, where faculty can share their expertise.

Officials with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences will formally dedicate the Frank Stronach Plant Science Center May 15 in Citra, honoring the entrepreneur for his gift that made the building possible.

Stronach, founder and honorary chairman of Magna International Inc., the world’s most diversified auto parts manufacturer, gave $1.5 million for the 5,380-square-foot multipurpose building and accompanying 7,000-square-foot open pavilion, which will be used for year-round educational programs.

UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences operates the center, located about 10 miles southeast of UF’s Gainesville campus. More than 150 UF/IFAS scientists have hundreds of agriculture-related studies under way on just about every conceivable crop.

Stronach began working with officials at the Citra center while contemplating a large grass-fed beef enterprise, which he is now pursuing in Marion and Levy counties, said Danny Colvin, director of the Plant Science Research and Education Unit.

Working with those officials led Stronach to understand the center’s building and pavilion needs, Colvin said. Stronach has said he believes the center will play an important role in conducting innovative plant research and making scientific breakthroughs.

The center hosts about 20 field days a year as well as several university classes each semester, and space is tight, Colvin said. The new building has three rooms that can be combined to seat 300, and the pavilion seating will make it easy for attendees to receive instruction on everything from standard agricultural equipment to demonstrations of the latest agricultural technology.

The event will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the center and the media and public are welcome. Directions to the center: http://plantscienceunit.ifas.ufl.edu/directions.shtml