Many recent scientific breakthroughs -- such as the sequencing of the rice genome in 2004 -- have triggered significant advances in how to help poor farmers overcome such age-old problems as drought, flooding and high levels of salinity. Yet many of the young researchers in developed nations who worked on these breakthroughs are unaware of how their work can impact poor nations and are far removed from the problems poor farmers may face in the field.

In one of the first attempts to encourage some of the world's brightest young scientists to consider careers helping developing nations, a new three-week course, Rice: Research to Production, was launched in May at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, the world's leading rice research and training center. The inaugural class of 26 students from 12 nations included eight Cornell students, and one of the course's leaders is Susan McCouch, Cornell professor of plant breeding and genetics.

"Many young scientists working in developed nations are increasingly isolated from the very people in poorer nations who could really benefit from their work," said McCouch. "We want to change this and encourage good young scientists wherever they are to think of themselves as a new generation of revolutionaries -- taking the latest scientific knowledge and using it to improve the lives of the world's poor."

The course, which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the United Kingdom's Gatsby Foundation and IRRI for three years, included 13 students from rice-growing countries in Asia and Africa.

"Until [this program], there was no major support at all for young scientists from advanced laboratories in the West who wanted to work or do their research in poor, developing nations," McCouch said. "The opportunities were all in the other direction. Our intention is to help reverse the brain drain and reinvigorate interdisciplinary teamwork in the developing world."

Course participants learned not only the basics of how rice is sown, cultivated and harvested but also about rice breeding and fertilizer management.

"Considering the ongoing revolutions in fields such as molecular biology and bioinformatics, this is an incredibly exciting time to work in agricultural research, because we are finally gaining the knowledge we need to solve some of the developing world's most intractable and difficult problems," said Robert S. Zeigler, IRRI's director general. "What we have to do now is make sure the young scientists of the world are aware of the unprecedented -- almost historic -- opportunity they have to really make a difference in the lives of the poor."

"The course made me better appreciate the importance of applied agriculture," said Megan O'Rourke, a 27-year-old mother of three earning a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell, adding that this was her first time working in a developing nation. "It has reminded me that I began studying agriculture because of its essential place in supporting lives and societies."