For someone who is so connected with the mission of land-grant universities, NMSU President Michael Martin seems an especially appropriate choice for the 2007 Justin Smith Morrill Memorial Award. With Martin’s selection for the award, he joins only five others across the country who have been singled out for this recognition by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service.

Justin Smith Morrill is one of three “Founding Fathers” of the land-grant university system. The Vermont congressman was steadfast in his belief that higher education should be made available to the masses, and he sponsored legislation that was signed in 1862 by President Lincoln to establish the system.

Martin is the sixth person selected for the Morrill Award since 1980, when USDA-CSREES began honoring the founders of the land-grant university system – Morrill, Seaman A. Knapp and William Henry Hatch – through a memorial lecture series. Each honoree is asked to present a lecture during the annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

Martin will present the 2007 Morrill lecture at the association’s meeting Nov. 11 in New York City.

The NMSU president’s background shows a career-long connection with the land-grant system, and his particular interest in the land-grant mission was reflected in his 2001 article for the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, in which he wrote, “The fundamental land-grant principles of accessibility, practical as well as classical education, research and discovery in the public interest, and connectedness to all the people remain powerful and profound.”