National Science Foundation Director Arden L. Bement announces $50 million iPlant Collaborative Award during press conference with Governor Janet Napolitano.

Audio Transcript:
Good morning, Governor. Its wonderful to see you again, and it is also great to give you good news. It is not often that we have the opportunity to announce a $50 million grant and especially one that is going to be so revolutionary in the study of plant science, but will also bring cyberinfrastructure and computational science and thinking into how the research of plant science is done. This is terribly revolutionary and will link some of the top scientists in the field to the University of Arizona and Arizona State University.

So everyone in Arizona has a lot to be proud of and were very excited about this grant and the opportunity to advance plant science deal with some of the grand challenges that are part of this revolution.

As you know, a greater understanding of plant science is critically important to our society today, and has large economic impacts, as well as dealing with some national issues having to do with the need for biomass derived energy to understand how we can cope with declining agricultural land area, dealing with climate change, changes in the environment. And much of the fundamental research that will come out of this program will provide answers that we need to deal with some of these grand challenges.

So again, my congratulations to you and your team. And everyone that put this wonderful program together, and as you know, I am always eager to work with you, and to work the science community in Arizona. So, Im looking forward to coming out and talking to the investigators some time soon.