Dr. Mike Grusak is a USDA, Agricultural Research Service scientist, the Center Director of the Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center in Fargo, North Dakota. In Fargo, he leads a program consisting of five research units whose scientists conduct research focused on crop plants, insects, food safety, and food quality. The Center’s broad mission is to solve problems that will help farmers produce a safe, nutritious, and sustainable food supply. His personal research involves understanding ways to enhance the nutritional quality of plant foods for human or animal consumption.
He studies how mineral nutrients are acquired from soil and transported throughout plants to edible tissues and works with breeders to translate this fundamental knowledge into strategies for developing nutritionally enhanced food crops. His group also has contributed to clinical investigations to study nutrient bioavailability from plant foods in humans. His research has been funded by USDA, NSF, NIH, the US Agency for International Development, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2016, he served as President of the Crop Science Society of America and is the 2022/2023 Chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents. Dr. Grusak received his Ph.D. in Botany from the University of California-Davis.