P.V. Vara Prasad is a Distinguished Professor, R.O. Kruse Endowed Professor, and Director of the Center for Crops, Climate and Communities in the Department of Agronomy and College of Agriculture at Kansas State University. His research focuses on understanding responses of crops to changing environments and developing best management strategies to improve and protect yields. He has research, education, and outreach activities around the world. He is passionate about human and institutional capacity building; and empowering producers and consumers to improve their lives and livelihood. He is a fellow of American Society of Agronomy; Crop Science Society of America; and American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a former member of International Commission on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification, and former President of Crop Science Society of America. He currently serves as the President of the Council of Agriculture Science and Technology.

He has published 565 peer reviewed publications (505 journal articles, 60 book chapters) and 5 edited books, which are cited >41,000 times with an h-index of 104, and i-10 index of 362. He is listed in the top 1% of highly cited and influential scholars around the world. He received extramural funding of over $200 million (>$157 million as Principal/Lead Investigator) and an $8 million in-kind donation. He graduated 27 students (15 PhD and 12 MS) as major advisor, 70 students (30 PhD and 40 MS) as committee member, and trained >220 visiting scholars from over 15 countries. He is currently co-major advisor for 3 students (1 PhD and 2 MS) and on committee of 8 students. He developed and taught two graduate courses since 2006; with an average teaching evaluation of 4.65 over 10 years. For his research, education, outreach, service and leadership activities, he received over 60 competitive awards and recognitions from multiple organizations around the world.

Research

Crop production is highly sensitive to environmental changes and variation. Kansas has wide gradient of environments, particularly with rainfall and temperatures. Annual rainfall varies from 16 inches on western border to over 40 inches in Southeast, and as we move from north to south, temperature increases. Crops in Kansas are often exposed to water stress, heat and cold stress during crop growing season leading to decreased biomass, grain yield and quality. Thus, crop production is always challenging to farmers and researchers.