An invitation from the National Research Council is giving one ISU professor the opportunity to help support economic and social development in Armenia.

The council invited Robert Anex, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, to serve on one of its committees. The National Research Council is part of the National Academies, which is made up of different councils that address critical national issues and give advice to the federal government and the public.

Anex, a research associate of the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies, has been appointed to the Science and Technology in Armenia: Current Status and Future Prospects committee.

“This committee will try to identify technology and organizations worthy of investment by government, international aid organizations or private industry in order to help support economic and social development in Armenia,” Anex said.

Armenia is located east of Turkey and was once a part of the Soviet Union.

The committee will look at the current state of Armenia’s science and technology base compared to its future developmental potential. To determine this potential, Anex will look at human and infrastructure resources and research as well as the country’s educational capabilities.

He was appointed to the committee because of his expertise on Armenia.

Anex said he did a previous study in 1999, which was funded by the National Academies. The study was concerned with the electric companies and methods to restructure and privatize them.

“It was a technological assessment of their infrastructure and an analysis of the regional political economy,” Anex said.

At that time, he spent two weeks in Armenia where he gathered information and gave a brief talk.

“We will attend meetings and listen to presentations by private companies and the government,” Anex said. “It will be like a field investigation where we analyze and gather data.”

Ramesh Kanwar, professor and chairman of agricultural and biosystems engineering, said the research council needs experts such as Anex for its advisory committees to help develop agendas for investments in different countries.

“There are few experts in this area and being chosen shows that Dr. Anex is a well-known expert, both nationally and internationally,” Kanwar said.

He said this will also be good recognition for the agricultural and biosystems engineering department and Iowa State.

“This shows that our faculty experts are good and being sought after by important national councils,” said Kanwar. “It is not easy to get appointed to one of these councils — faculty reputation is the key.”