World seed certification body honors Watson
A retired senior Mississippi State administrator and a former interim president of the university is receiving the highest honor of an international organization.
Vance H. Watson now holds the rank of Lifetime Honorary Member of the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies. An MSU doctoral graduate who worked for more than four decades at his alma mater, he received the career tribute at the association's recent 93rd convention in St. Louis, Mo.
With headquarters in Moline, Ill., the organization assists clients in the production, identification, distribution, and promotion of certified classes of seed and other crop propagation materials. Established in 1919, it now includes member agencies across the U.S., as well as in Canada, South America, Australia, and New Zealand. (For more, visit www.aosca.org/about.html.)
Watson was AOSCA's executive vice president 1992-97, during which time the association's international office was located on the Starkville campus.
At MSU, he served as interim president in 2008. In addition to being a member of the agronomy faculty, the Missouri native also was vice president for agriculture, forestry and veterinary medicine, director of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and MSU Extension Service, and dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Sammy McDavid | University Relations
