Dr. Ort, you're the research leader for the Photosynthesis Research Unit (PRU), so it's your job to keep the big picture in mind, to coordinate the research. What's the purpose of the PRU? What's your overall objective?

Dr. Donald Ort -- The PRU is an arm of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The mission of the ARS is to solve agricultural problems, particularly ones that have significant economic impact on agriculture in the U.S. These problems cover everything from controlling plant diseases to making agriculture more productive under changing environmental conditions. So first of all we are a problem-solving agency. We all have specific agricultural problems in mind when we're doing our research.
     Some problems we work on are short term; others are much longer term. Sometimes we simply don't know enough about the biology of photosynthesis to address certain agricultural problems. In those cases, we're doing very basic research to build that knowledge. In other areas, we know there's a very specific issue, and our research gets much closer to agricultural applications. We can give you examples of both basic and applied research in each of our laboratories.

Let's get into what the different labs and different researchers are doing. Where do you think is the best place to begin?

Ort -- I don't think there is a starting point; I think that's part of what characterizes us. We are an amalgamation of people working on related things. It's fair to start anywhere.