The Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) kicked off a celebration of its 10^th anniversary on Thursday, September 8, with a series of presentations on different aspects of the Institute’s work. The event was the first of a planned yearlong celebration that will include monthly guest lectures and culminate in a two-day conference in May 2023.

TCI Director Prabhu Pingali spoke at the kickoff event, along with Beth Ahner, senior associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at Cornell University.

“These last 10 years, TCI has funded impactful research, fostered interdisciplinary work, and has facilitated a translation to impact that’s really impressive, and supported the development of talented scholars,” Ahner said.

Pingali reflected on a past conversation he had with Ratan Tata ’62, under whose direction the Tata Education and Development Trust gave a $25 million endowment to Cornell to establish TCI. Tata told him that he wanted to bring Cornell’s expertise to bear on the interconnected issues of malnutrition and rural poverty in India.

“That was a really great challenge to take on,” Pingali said. “That’s what we’ve been trying to work on over the last 10 years.”

Presentations were made by TCI staff, scholars, and faculty fellows, including research support specialist Sage Grasso-Monroe, TCI Scholar Vanisha Sharma, Faculty Fellows Harold van Es, Rebecca Nelson, and Andrew McDonald, in addition to Anil Netravali, Jean and Douglas McLean Professor in Fiber Science and Apparel Design in the College of Human Ecology.

Featured image: TCI Director Prabhu Pingali speaks at the 10th-anniversary kickoff event. (Photo by Dan Verderosa/TCI)