Newswise — President George W. Bush's State of the Union address Tuesday evening included a challenging goal: "to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025." As a critical component of his proposal, he pledged support for "additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn but from wood chips and stalks or switchgrass." The Sun Grant Initiative (SGI), developed by a national network of land-grant universities including South Dakota State University, is working to make that goal a reality.
When Congress passed the transportation bill last summer it included $50 million over five years for the SGI, a nationwide research effort to promote ag-based renewable energy that began at South Dakota State.
Dr. Kevin Kephart, vice president of research, has worked extensively on the project and is a leading expert in the field. He received his doctorate in crop production and physiology from Iowa State University in 1987, his master's degree in 1982 from the University of Wyoming and his bachelor's degree in soil science from Montana State University in 1979. In 1980 he was a research technician on a North Dakota State University surface mine reclamation project based in Mandan.
Another SDSU expert on the topic is Dr. Arvid Boe, professor in the Plant Science Department. His area of research is forage breeding. Boe's program has developed and released native legume cultivars and involves evaluating and breeding switchgrass for biomass/biofuel in the northern Great Plains, and studying the reproductive biology of native legumes.
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