The Council for Agricultural Science and TechnologyCAST, has presented its annual President’s Award to David Baltensperger, Ph.D., in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Baltensperger served as the head of the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences for 20 years. He now serves as a professor in the department and as interim head of the Department of Food Science and Technology.
Also named as a CAST President’s Award recipient was Ray Starling, general counsel of the North Carolina Chamber. Both were recognized for outstanding leadership and dedicated service to the mission and strengthening the role of science and technology in agriculture and food systems.
Baltensperger dedicated to promoting science and technology
Baltensperger is a CAST lifetime member and served as the council’s president in 2020-2021. He chaired CAST’s stakeholder engagement planning initiative, offered editorial guidance for special publications and served as the Crop Science Society of AmericaCSSA, liaison to CAST.
He also chaired the task force that prepared the 2021 CAST commentary, “The Role of Agricultural Science and Technology in Climate 21 Project Implementation,” which brought together experts from several fields to provide science-based information to policymakers.
“The CAST President’s Award is particularly meaningful to me because it reminds me of the many mentors who guided my journey through CAST and other organizations,” Baltensperger said. “They were giants of the agricultural world, including Dr. Norman Borlaug, Martin Massengale, Darrell Nelson and many others, who shared with me CAST’s mission and value.”
He said that encouragement of his engagement opened a wonderful opportunity to contribute to society through CAST.
Service and recognition
Baltensperger is a past president of CSSA and Council of Scientific Society Presidents. He is active in multiple scientific societies and agricultural advisory boards, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Texas State Seed and Plant Board, and National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education and Economics.
He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including prestigious Fellow awards in the CSSA, American Society of Agronomy and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as the CSSA Distinguished Service Award.
Other honors include the Texas A&M AgriLife Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence for administration and the Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Plant Protection Association.
About the award
The President’s Award is a discretionary honor given by the CAST president to people who have personally advanced CAST and furthered agriculture, science and technology.
CAST, based in Ames, Iowa, assembles, interprets and communicates credible, balanced, science-based information to policymakers, the media, the private sector and the public through its network of experts.
CAST President P.V. Vara Prasad, Ph.D., presented the award to Baltensperger at the 2026 CAST Annual Meeting and Student Innovation Conference in St. Louis, saying, “CAST depends on people who give their time, share their expertise and help move our mission forward.”
Share or print this post:
Source: agrilifetoday.tamu.edu
