WORTHINGTON -- Gov. Tim Pawlenty will be the keynote speaker at next week's Bioscience Conference, and he will also host his weekly Friday morning radio show live from the conference stage.
Glenn Thuringer, manager of Worthington Regional Economic Development Corp., said Tuesday that Pawlenty will address Bioscience Conference attendees at 8:30 a.m. March 28, the second day of the two-day event at Minnesota West Community and Technical College. Immediately following his remarks, he'll do his hour-long radio program.
This will be Pawlenty's first visit to Worthington's annual Bioscience Conference, which will take place for the fourth time.
"I think it gives the conference credibility and gives the presenters we already have lined up an even bigger platform from which to speak," Thuringer said. "I think this gives us recognition in this corner of the state for our bioscience efforts, and shows that our efforts aren't going unnoticed."
Additionally, a nationally syndicated program will also be broadcast live from the Bioscience Conference that same day. "AgriTalk," which airs locally on KWOA-AM, will host its program -- starting at approximately 10 a.m. after the governor's radio show -- from the lobby of the Minnesota West administration building. People who wish to watch the live radio broadcast may do so free of charge.
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"The entire show is going to be dedicated to Worthington," Thuringer said. "We've lined up a bunch of people to speak ... like the mayor (Alan Oberloh) and local business leaders."
Thuringer credited rural Worthington's Matt Widboom, a former farm broadcaster, for making the initial contact with "AgriTalk."
Also scheduled for Friday at the Bioscience Conference is a session, "Bioscience: Research at Work," from 10:15 to 11:45 a.m. Panelists include Ben Perryman, vice president of research at Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, S.D., Eric Wieben, director of the Mayo Clinic Genomics Research Center, and Gareth Davies, scientific director for Avera Institute for Human Behavioral Genetics.
"We're wrapping up the conference with three powerhouse speakers from Sanford, Mayo and Avera," Thuringer said. "We're excited about that."
The conference begins at 12:30 p.m. March 27, and three different panel sessions are scheduled for that day. The first session, "Renewables: Growing It, Converting It, Utilizing It," will be from 1:15 to 3:15 p.m.
"One of the panelists, Vance Owens, will be talking about switchgrass ... and another, Mark Rasmussen, will be talking about using algae to make ethanol and biodiesel," Thuringer said. "(Rasmussen's) is going to be one of the most interesting talks of the conference."
Owens is in the Plant Science Department at South Dakota State University, while Rasmussen is a senior research scientist with SarTec Corp. in Anoka.
A complete schedule of events for the Bioscience Conference is available at wgtn.net, where Thuringer asks people planning to attend the conference to register.
