Episode 2.8: Jenny Durrin — The Potato Nursery

“I’m not sure everyone’s aware, but Idaho is known for potatoes… We grow over 322,000 acres of potatoes and produce over a third of the potatoes in the U.S.” Meet Jenny Durrin (bit.ly/2OHI1PG), the director of the Seed Potato Germplasm Program at the University of Idaho. Whether we are talking about French fries from McDonald’s or the small purple potatoes you find at farmers markets, 90% of potatoes produced in Idaho can trace their lineage to Jenny’s lab. Picture the lab as a potato nursery. A really sterile potato nursery. In the lab, Jenny is the caretaker of more than 300 varieties of potatoes including new varieties of the tubers produced by researchers at U of I. Visit our website go.uidaho.edu/thevandaltheory​. Email us at [email protected]. Learn about Idaho’s premier research university, University of Idaho, at uidaho.edu. More U of I research: College of Engineering students earned top placement in the National Academy of Engineering Global Grand Challenges Summit student competition. Read more (bit.ly/34IXLHF). University of Idaho, Idaho Falls computer science graduate students took first place locally in the 2019 U.S. Department of Energy CyberForce Competition. Read more (bit.ly/35NhFRU). A University of Idaho-led team of researchers found that experimental fences — including fences made from beehives — reduced the number of times elephants left Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park to raid nearby crops by 80-95%. Read more (bit.ly/2r6DyNk). Music: “Young Republicans” by Steve Combs (bit.ly/2PsMCpw) via freemusicarchive.org, not modified (bit.ly/2Ju7MQb). “Coffee” by Cambo (bit.ly/2rQgRgw) via freemusicarchive.org, not modified (bit.ly/2DCpXQn).