For four days, beginning on Sunday, July 22, more than 300 people, from 16 countries came to the Boise for the 102nd annual meeting of the Potato Association of America (PAA). Shelley Jansky, 2017-2018 PAA president and a research scientist with the USDA-ARS and horticulture professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that attendance was so good that they had to close registration because they couldn’t accommodate any more people. Succeeding Jansky as PAA president was Rich Novy, USDA-ARS research geneticist at the Aberdeen, Idaho facility. Novy said that he wants to continue the PAA’s role continuing to develop collaboration among researchers and the industry and encourage young researchers to stay involved in the potato industry during his one-year term as president.
“One thing that we’re looking at is trying to facilitate new researchers, graduate students, keep their interest in being involved in potato and continuing their research role to help the industry,” Novy said. “We have an aging population,” Novy said of the PAA membership base, “like many aging populations we need to have the young researchers ready with the retirements that are coming down the pipeline.” (Source: Potato Bytes)
