 My name is Usha Palaniswamy and I am now currently at the University of Connecticut and I'm an assistant professor teaching and doing research that is related to plant physiology as well as phytochemistry. And my return here at ERI after about 35 years, I think back about my life at ERI when I was very young, about 10 years old, as a stage during which I really grew up. I had the opportunity to interact with the culture that I had never met before and a culture that was so friendly, warm, which greeted us with great smiles and interacted with us very closely during our time who helped us. We were very fortunate to make some very good friends during our stay here and although I was 10 years old, I had the opportunity to see the scientists at work here who were dedicated to a single crop, which is the most important crop in the whole world and that was, you know, I saw the dedication with which they worked and I saw my dad who was working, you know, nonetheless, almost all day, he was out of the house and working very hard and I think that kind of inspired me to become a scientist, to think about plants that give you food which play an important role in our life in many different ways besides giving you just the food. So I became inspired by looking at the scientists here and, you know, during my educational period after I left ERI, I did choose to become a horticulturist. And so I would look back at my life at ERI as the greatest period of life, you know, during which I really grew up. Had an interaction with the great cultures of the Philippines, of the natives and also an international community which, you know, were derived from many different nations. I had an opportunity to interact with Koreans, with the Thai people as well as with the Indians from different states, which I would not have had an opportunity if I had stayed back in India and, you know, if my dad was just here by himself. I think ERI provided us, not just my dad but us, an opportunity to the whole family to interact with the new culture, to learn about the world and about the people. So this was like my first interaction that I had with a different culture outside the India and that really provided me a great inspiration to become a scientist and to look upon different cultures with the same eyes and to think about human rights on the same plan as you would. People in the whole world. So my return here is because of a project that I thought of to include ERI as one of the models of research that would inspire other students as well who, you know, I hope would be inspired just as I was looking at ERI as a model that would provide education and to address the real world issues, the real problems that can be solved by science. So I believe and I hope that my efforts here at ERI to portray ERI as a model of research, as a model of research that's happening outside the United States and that is touching the lives of a number of people outside in the developing countries who are the poorest, the poorest of all who depend on farming as for their source of income, for their source of life and for culture. So agriculture is one of the most basic professions that have touched the lives of people since time immemorial, since antiquity and that will continue and it's very important that we keep the younger generation excited about agriculture to consider agriculture as a part of, as an option, as a desirable option to any other jobs. So my effort here is to portray ERI, which is, you know, I can't say highly enough of ERI, that everyone who would be, you know, who would be involved in taking my curricular design as well as teaching efforts at the University of Connecticut and hopefully in other parts of the United States would be excited about research that's happening outside the United States as well as think about the opportunities that they would have in playing an important role in alleviating poverty to agriculture and their scientific efforts. So I fondly remember, you know, the large trees with white flowers on the green grass where we would come and share our snacks in the evenings. When my dad was at work, we would just take a bus and come to ERI, enjoy the fountain, enjoy the lights, enjoy the, you know, cool air-conditioned lounge, you know, and also we used to come for the movies that were being screened and we were also greatly appreciative of the gifts that we would get when we were as little kids, you know, for the Christmas. So, and the local people, you know, with whom we interacted were so kind and, you know, they were just, because as Hindus we never really appreciated Christianity or celebrated Christmas before coming to the Philippines. So, you know, the people with whom we stayed in a compound, we stayed in Gonzales compound and the landlady and the landlord would, you know, come and knock on the door and call us and ask us to share their rice and, you know, all the different desserts that they make because my mother is a vegetarian and we are not that great about, you know, eating non-vegetarian food. So they would offer us all the vegetables that, you know, that would grow in their land and fruits. So we were great, great appreciation, we have great appreciation for the local culture which is very warm and very friendly and very kind. So I look back at my memories at Erie with great warmth and a sense of growing up right here when I was, you know, at the stage of forming my desires to be, you know, to be a scientist, to do my PhD and all that kind of thing. That really happened to me here. So I look back with fond memories and I'm here right now enjoying the, and reliving perhaps some of the memories that I had as a child and I hope that, you know, I'll be able to come back again and also feel the same way. Thank you.