Investing in Tomorrow's Agriculture

Mitch Roth earned a national Syngenta scholarship in 2015, while pursuing a doctorate in genetics at Michigan State University. Four years later, he’s a postdoctoral research associate in the plant pathology department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Roth recently reflected on what the scholarship has meant to him.

“Earning the scholarship provided validation that the work of early-career scientists is valued by large agricultural institutions. With support from the Syngenta scholarship, I was able to focus less on funding school and more on my research at the lab bench.”

“Earning the scholarship provided validation that the work of early-career scientists is valued by large agricultural institutions,” he says. “With support from the Syngenta scholarship, I was able to focus less on funding school and more on my research at the lab bench.”

The contributions of Roth and other scholarship recipients, in turn, can help farmers and agribusinesses in the future.

“We want students to know that in addition to their universities, companies like Syngenta support them and their work,” says Syngenta Communications Manager Wendell Calhoun, who adds that scholarship winners could also be potential employees or future business partners of Syngenta.

The Accelerating a Generation Syngenta Scholarship, formerly the Syngenta Agricultural Scholarship, began in 2014, when the company combined multiple crop-specific scholarships into one program. The scholarship committee determined that a single program recognizing the contributions of students from multiple disciplines would have a more significant impact, Calhoun says.

Syngenta has since awarded a total of $20,000 in scholarships each year. It awards eight $1,000 regional scholarships and two $6,000 national scholarships, with one of the national awards going to a student pursuing a bachelor’s degree and the other to a student working toward a master’s degree in crop-related disciplines. So far, scholarship recipients have pursued degrees at colleges in 18 different states.

Roth is currently researching the interactions between soybean and the fungal pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He earned a Ph.D. in genetics, with a dual major in plant pathology, in May 2019.

“I’m interested in understanding the genetics of a compatible interaction that results in disease and the genetics of an incompatible interaction that results in disease resistance,” he says. “I hope to apply this knowledge to soybean lines to improve disease resistance in soybeans.”

He says he’d like to be a university professor one day.

“I enjoy research, teaching others about research and mentoring others through their research projects,” he says.

Syngenta will launch its 2020 Accelerating a Generation Scholarship at the end of October. For more information on the 2019 scholarship winners and the 2020 competition, go to www.syngenta-us.com/scholarships.