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CZECHOSLOVAK SOCIETY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES |
Youthful SVU Member Directs $16 Million New Research Center
Jack Rechcigl, Professor of Soil and Water Science at the University of Florida and Director of the University?s Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, formerly in Bradenton and Dover, FL, has built a brand new research facility, located in Wimauma, Hillsborough County, east of Tampa. The new facility was officially dedicated on April 1, 2005 in the presence of 600 guests, including high-level University officials and representatives of Florida legislature and government, and industry.
Areas of the Center, built on the 475-acre tract given to the University by Hillsborough County, have been designated for vegetable, strawberry, citrus, ornamental horticulture, landscaping, and pasture research, using the latest technological advances, such as biotechnology and genetic engineering. The 39,000 sq. ft. double-winged main building with an exterior appearance matching the ?UF -campus look? and interior capabilities many would envy. It provides office and laboratory space for 20 faculty, 100-member support staff and graduate students as well as a 500-seat auditorium. A plant diagnostic laboratory will aid county extension faculty and local growers in determining disease and nutrition problems and solutions.
Thanks to Dr. Rechcigl?s initiative, the new Center has established collaboration with the Czech University of Agriculture in Prague, where he holds the position of Honorary Professor, and the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra. Additional collaborative agreements with other universities will be signed during the planned Rechcigl?s visit to Czech Republic and Slovakia in the fall 2005.
Several rectors and other high-level university officials from the Czech Republic and Slovakia who saw the new center, were duly impressed by the state-of the-art facility, equipped with the latest technological tools and equipment, such as GPS and GIS link-up. Other features include specialty buildings with room-size coolers plus controlled environments, huge growth chambers, some 20 green houses, experimental fields that stretch for miles, modern mechanical shops, weather station, housing for graduate students and visiting scientists, etc.
Jack Rechcigl, who is the son of SVU President Mila Rechcigl, is an outstanding example of our successful younger generation of SVU members who have established brilliant careers, of whom the Society can be rightfully proud.
SVU Press Release
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