Jack M. Payne

The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is a federal-state-county partnership dedicated to developing knowledge in agriculture, human and natural resources, and the life sciences, and enhancing and sustaining the quality of human life by making that information accessible. While extending into every community of the state, UF/IFAS has developed an international reputation for its accomplishments in teaching, research and extension. Because of this mission and the diversity of Florida’s climate and agricultural commodities, IFAS has facilities located throughout Florida. IFAS provides research and development for Florida’s agricultural, natural resources and related food industries, which in 2010 made value-added contributions of $108.7 billion to the gross domestic product of the state economy.

The University of Florida (commonly referred to as Florida or UF) is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a 2,000-acre (8.1 km2) campus in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906. The University of Florida is ranked 14th overall among all public national universities in the 2014 U.S. News & World Report rankings, and has ranked within the top 100 universities worldwide. The University of Florida was also described as a "Public Ivy" in the book The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities.

Utah State University (USU) is a public research university in Logan, Utah. Founded in 1888 as Utah's agricultural college, USU focused on agriculture, domestic arts, and mechanic arts. The university now offers programs in liberal arts, engineering, business, economics, natural resource sciences, as well as nationally ranked elementary & secondary education programs. The university has eight colleges and offers a total of 176 bachelor's degrees, 97 master's degrees, and 38 doctoral degrees. It is a land-grant and space-grant institution accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. USU's main campus is located in Logan with regional campuses in Brigham City, Tooele, and the Uintah Basin. In 2010, the College of Eastern Utah, located in Price, Utah joined the USU system becoming Utah State University College of Eastern Utah (USU Eastern). Throughout Utah, USU operates more than 20 distance education centers. Regional campuses, USU Eastern, and distance education centers provide degrees to more than 40% of the students enrolled. In total, USU has more than 180,000 alumni in all 50 states and more than 100 countries. With more than 16,000 students living on or near campus, USU is the largest public residential campus in Utah. USU's athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Utah State Aggies. They are members of the Mountain West Conference.