SIUC's Lightfoot named a 'Road Scholar'

David A. Lightfoot

David A. Lightfoot, a biotechnologist in SIUC's College of Agricultural Sciences, is an Illinois Humanities Council "Road Scholar" for 2007-2008.

The scholars program brings writers, poets, social scientists and other representatives from the humanities to the state's hamlets, villages, towns and cities in free presentations that "entertain, educate and challenge," according to the council's Web site.

Lightfoot's work since coming to SIUC in 1991 has largely focused on soybean genomics — understanding the order in which the elements of DNA occur in order to make useful changes more quickly. His presentation, titled "A New Food Pyramid: Biotechnology, Obesity and Health," will explore what the move toward scientific alteration of food's quantity, quality and makeup means to society and to its individual members.

At SIUC, Lightfoot teaches in the departments of plant, soil and agricultural systems; plant biology; and biochemistry and molecular biology. He chairs the research committee in the University's Center for Excellence in Soybean Research, Teaching and Outreach and directs its Genomic Science Core-Facility.

A native of England, Lightfoot earned his doctoral degree in genetics from the University of Leeds in 1984.