OPINION — When most people hear the word, “scientist,” they picture someone in a white lab coat working in a laboratory. They probably don’t picture a farmer in southeastern Arizona, a librarian in a small town or a student on the Navajo Nation, but they should.
One of Arizona’s most remarkable innovators is Ed Curry, a world-renowned chile geneticist who never went to college. When he needed equipment that didn’t exist, he built it. When he found better ways to grow crops, he patented his ideas. Today, he uses drones to monitor his fields and speaks at agricultural conferences around the world.
Ed didn’t set out to become a “scientist.” He simply saw problems and refused to stop until he solved them.
