 You know that the plant growth facility is funded generously by the people and government of Australia. It also just happened to be Australia Day, so happy Australia Day to all our Australian colleagues here at Erie and our guests from ACR and the Embassy of Australia. So I did a little bit of research on Australia Day and according to Wikipedia, what people do on Australia Day is have a day off, use the day to picnic in the park, go shopping or to play or to watch sports events. And last Sunday I spied our Australian colleagues playing a game of cricket, so Wikipedia must be right. Sometimes. Sometimes. Anyway, and to represent the government of Australia, we have a colleague who actually is from the Spaniards. So everything connects. Miss Cecilia Honorado is the country manager of ACR in the Philippines. She leads a country office team that provides support to the development and implementation of ACR's programs in the country. And prior to joining ACR, Miss Honorado worked for the National Economic and Development Authority or NEDA, the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Bachelor of Resources, Research and Development, Picard of DOSD, and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture or our neighbor, Syrica. She obtained her bachelor's degree from the University of the Philippines at Los Panos, and her master's degree from the Central Michigan University. So for a message of solidarity from the Australian people and government, please welcome Cecilia Honorado. Thank you very much, Tonya, for the nice introduction. You really did a good research on my block now. Thank you. First of all, I would like to thank the officers and staff of the International Rise Research Institute for inviting me here along today in this very important location. I am honored to be representing the Australian government and the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research or ACR at this round breaking ceremony for the Lloyd Evans Plant Growth Facility. As mentioned by Tony, I am the country manager for the Philippines of ACR, which has been active in the country for, as in 1983, a year after ACR was created. ACR is absolutely aware of the importance of rice for the world population, as rice is the staple food for more than 3.5 billion people worldwide. It is a critical food source for poverty-stricken families, and it is imperative that developments in rice production are made to meet the global demands of increasing rice consumption. The work of Erie aligns with ACR's mandate to encourage research for the purpose of identifying or finding solutions to agricultural problems of developing countries. The Australian government through ACR has provided various funding to the International Rise Research Institute to assist with new and ongoing projects to meet their objectives of reducing poverty and hunger through rice science, including 15.2 million U.S. dollars to support the Lloyd Evans Facility and other infrastructure, annual contributions to the CGIAR for research programs in the order of 16.2 million U.S. dollars, and significant project-specific funding in addition to our core grants. In addition, the Australian government through ACR engages on a technical level with Australian scientists active in many elements of the CGIAR and Erie's work. ACR and Erie have worked closely together on many projects over the years. Some of the current projects include identification and validation of functional markers from diverse germplasm to reduce the choke in rice breeding materials, diversification and intensification of rice-based systems in lower Burma, and improve rice germplasm for Cambodia and Australia. Now back to today's event, Lloyd Evans is a fitting name for this facility. After the fundamental research contributions, Dr. Evans gave to plant and crop science, especially with the establishment of CERES by Tutron, the artificially controlled environment research facility. Dr. Evans worked at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization for nearly 50 years. His presidency of the Australian Academy of Science and his contributions at Erie all highlight his dedication to the plant industry and the scientific community more broadly. His research publications and books on crop science reflect the breadth and depth of his interest in and understanding of the subject. His publications culminated in a delightful celebration of the hero's history of innovation in agriculture, feeding the 10 million. Published on the 200th anniversary of the gloomy essay of Thomas Malthus on World Population and Food Supply in 1998, the Lloyd Evans Roth facility will exemplify Dr. Evans' work with his study of plants using controlled environment rooms, including controlled temperature, relative humidity, light intensity, photo period systems, water management systems and precise control of atmospheric gases. The controlled environment rooms will monitor the properties and growth of a large number of plants in a reliable and systematic way. This will contribute to the evolution of large data sets of research which are made usable because of the progress of information technology. These data sets are key to developing science discovery and research and will place it in good stead for the future of work. Finally, on behalf of the Australian Ambassador Bill Twiddle and ACR's CEO, Dr. Nick Austin, I would like to thank you for inviting us to the ceremony today and wish you well as you continue your work to reduce poverty and hunger, to improve the health of friends' farmers and consumers, and to maintain the environmental sustainability of friends' farming. Thank you very much.