JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (March 2022) – Late last month, Dr. Aruna Kilaru wrote a piece aimed at addressing food insecurity and climate change using agricultural biotechnology.
Suggesting how both farmers and government agencies can work together to reduce harmful
emissions and minimize food waste, the article appeared as part of her work as a science,
technology and policy fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
and science adviser and international trade policy officer for the U.S. Department
of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service, New Technologies and Production Methods
Divisions.
It means that Kilaru, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at East Tennessee State University, is playing an important role in the federal government’s
climate, global hunger and food security initiative.
“Addressing poverty, hunger and malnutrition, as well as the effects of extreme weather,
is incredibly important both here at home and abroad,” said Kilaru. “I am honored
to be part of it.”
Federal and state organizations have taken notice of Kilaru’s work.
In late 2021, The Tennessee Academy of Sciences presented her with the 2021 Distinguished
Scientist Award.
Kilaru’s work, wrote the Academy President Dr. Amy L. Thompson, “is central to the
globally important tasks of feeding a growing world population and the production
of clean biofuels to developing stress-tolerant crops with improved productivity.”
Kilaru has ongoing international and national collaborations, another metric that
helped her win the state honor. She works with groups in Australia, Canada, China,
Germany and India, as well as organizations in Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts and
Texas.
Kilaru has earned over $1.1 million in grant funds since she joined ETSU in 2011.
Other scientists have cited her work more than 1,500 times in the last decade. She
is also the recipient of ETSU’s 2021 Distinguished Faculty Award in Research and the
Notable Women Award.