• To Feed the Future we must first seed the future.
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  • A Global Center of Excellence

Welcome to the ISU Seed Science Center

More than 100 Years of Excellence in Seed Testing, Research, and Outreach

The Seed Science Center at Iowa State University is a center of excellence nationally and internationally in seed research, education, technology transfer, and international seed programs. It provides a focus for teaching, research, and extension programs on seed in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and it is a global leader in introducing science into policy to benefit world seed trade.

Directed by Dr. Misra, the Seed Science Center is home to the largest public seed testing laboratory in the world. For more than 100 years, the lab has provided accurate and professional seed-testing services for members of the seed industry.

Seed Science Center faculty members are committed to providing quality research and education to produce the next generation of leaders in the seed industry. Faculty specializing in seed physiology, seed pathology, risk management, and seed conditioning conduct cutting-edge research projects in sustainable agriculture, biotechnology, crop utilization, computer technologies, microbiology, toxicology, and molecular biology.   

Working to provide access to quality seed, facilitating seed trade, and promoting the growth and development of the seed industry are important missions of the Center's Global Programs. In the past 20 years, center scientists have designed and conducted programs in more than 80 countries around the world to achieve these goals.

For more information about the Seed Science Center at Iowa State University, contact seedsci@iastate.edu.

 

News

September 25, 2023
AMES, Iowa – For the second year in a row, the Seed Lab at Iowa State University’s Seed Science Center (SSC) passed an ISO 9001 audit with no non-conformities found.          ISO 9001 addresses various aspects of quality management and examines whether organizations meet the best-known standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to...
August 8, 2023
Manjit Misra, Director USDA-NIFA
AMES, Iowa – Dr. Manjit K. Misra, newly appointed director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), returns to Ames, Iowa for a visit after assuming his new role last May. He will be guest of honor at a luncheon and open house at Iowa State University’s (ISU) Seed Science Center (SSC) on Tuesday, August 15, from noon-3 pm. As the head of USDA-NIFA...
July 19, 2023
The Seed Science Center (SSC) hosted 26 participants from eight countries in Ames, Iowa from May 20-June 05, 2023 as part of a three-year grant from the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS). Now on its second year, this phase involved the training of executives and policymakers, regulators, scientists, and researchers in three countries in Asia (the Philippines,...