Former Vice President for Agriculture Martin selected for USDA Morrill award
Mike Martin, a former UF vice president for agriculture and natural resources, has been selected to receive one of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s highest honors for educators, the Justin Smith Morrill Memorial Award.
Martin, currently president of New Mexico State University, will also deliver the 2007 Justin Smith Morrill Lecture, at the annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, Nov. 11-13 in New York City. The lecture takes place Nov. 11.
He is only the sixth person to receive the award, presented by the USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service to honor outstanding contemporary leadership in teaching and significant contributions to education.
The award and lecture program came about in 1980, to honor the founders of the U.S. land-grant university system—Morrill, Seaman A. Knapp and William Henry Hatch. The name of the award and lecture rotates each year.
Martin was nominated for the honor by Jimmy Cheek, UF senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources, and Everett Egginton, dean for International and Border Programs at New Mexico State.
In his nomination letter, Cheek wrote, “In his professional and personal life, Mike Martin believes in and has demonstrated a commitment to advancing social justice, enhancing economic opportunity and securing American democracy.”
“He has steadfastly remained committed to the Land-Grant principles of teaching students, conducting research, and extending research findings to the people of the state to address and solve pertinent issues,” Cheek added.
Martin served as UF vice president for agriculture and natural resources from October 1998 through the end of 2004, when he became president of New Mexico State. Previously, he was vice president for agricultural policy and the dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Minnesota, and a faculty member with Oregon State University’s agricultural and resource economics department.
See Justin Smith Morrill's biography
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