Dr. L. George Wilson

Professor
Senior Advisor, USAID

Department of Horticultural Science
154 Kilgore Hall
Box 7608
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7609

Office Phone: 919.515.2665
E-Mail: george_wilson@ncsu.edu

Ph.D. 1969 Michigan State University

Dr. Wilson is responsible for international projects in horticultural science, and has been selected to serve for the next two years as a senior adviser with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Through an intergovernmental personnel agreement (IPA), the professor of horticultural science will serve in the Washington, D.C., based Agriculture Office in the Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade.

Starting this month, Wilson will provide guidance on international and domestic programs in agricultural research, training and outreach carried out by U.S. universities. His responsibilities will include creating and strengthening ties between agricultural programs at U.S. land-grant universities and other U.S. institutions and the USAID Missions in American embassies around the world.

Wilson has a long record of international and university service. He began his career with nine years as a researcher and technology transfer specialist for United Fruit Co. (Chiquita International, Ltd.) in La Lima, Honduras. He then joined N.C. State’s faculty in 1975 as horticultural extension specialist for sweetpotatoes, potatoes and postharvest technology.

In 1982, he served as associate chief of party and extension leader for N.C. State’s USAID-funded Research, Extension and Education project in Peru. And in 1990 he was selected as the American Society for Horticultural Science’s first Congressional Science Fellow, serving as senior science advisor to U.S. Sen. Terry Sanford.

The following year, he returned to Peru as chief of party of N.C. State’s USAID Agricultural Technology Transfer Project. He spent most of 1993 in Bulgaria, where he co-led the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bulgarian American Extension Project.

In 1997, Wilson was appointed international programs coordinator for N.C. State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. In 2002 he became the university’s vice provost for international affairs, and in January he resumed his post as professor of horticultural science.

Wilson holds a bachelor’s from Cornell University, a master’s from Washington State University and a doctoral degree from Michigan State University. He has served as vice president of both the Extension and International Affairs divisions of the American Society for Horticultural Science, was named a Fellow of the Society in 1990, and served as president during its centennial in 2003.