Dr. Vara Prasad is a Distinguished Professor of Crop Ecophysiology in the Department of Agronomy and the Director of Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification at Kansas State University. His research focuses on understanding responses of food grain crops to changing environments (temperature and water) and developing best management practices for efficient use of inputs using systems approaches.
Dr. Prasad is passionate about international agriculture research and capacity building. He has carried out research, education and extension activities in several countries in Africa (e.g. Ghana, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Senegal) and Asia (e.g. India, Cambodia, Bangladesh) and is internationally recognized for his research on environmental stress physiology and cropping systems. He has published over 230 journal articles and book chapters, and trained more than 130 research scholars and graduate students. His research has been cited over 11,300 times with an h-index of 55. He has received more than $100 million in grants/gifts and been presented with several competitive awards including; International Educator, Distinguished Graduate Faculty, Outstanding Faculty and Outstanding Scientist from Kansas State University. He is an Elected Fellow of the Crop Science Society of America, the American Society of Agronomy and the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. He currently serves as President-Elect (2020) of the Crop Science Society of America. Dr. Prasad received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, India, and his PhD from the University of Reading, United Kingdom