Dr. Abdullah Jaradat will be giving a public seminar at 9:30 a.m. Monday in room 1951 of the Food Sciences Building.

Jaradat is one of three candidates, along with Thanos Papanicolaou and Mark Rasmussen, competing for the position of director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

The center has been looking for a new director since Jerry DeWitt retired in 2009 after serving for 38 years. Since then, two interim directors have served while the Leopold Center has conducted it search.

Jaradat holds a Bachelor of Science in dryland agriculture, a Master of Science degree in agronomy and a Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics. Jaradat works as an agronomist and administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s North Central Soil Conservation Research Lab, a facility in the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Morris, Minn.

Jaradat also serves as an adjunct professor of agronomy and plant genetics at the University of Minnesota and adjunct professor of science at Southwest Minnesota State University. Jaradat has traveled throughout the Middle East as a guest lecturer and university professor, and also advised a national program in West and Central Asia and North Africa about agricultural research and development.

Each of the three finalists has been invited to campus for a two-day visit during which they will present a seminar to the public. The purpose of the seminar is to give each candidate a chance to introduce their plans for the Leopold Center while giving the public a little bit of their background. Papanicolaou will present Thursday, with Rasmussen concluding the seminars Dec. 5.