Clemson Experiment Station appoints assistant director

Published: July 10, 2012

CLEMSON — The Clemson University Experiment Station has named a new assistant director. Christopher L. Ray will coordinate planning, budgeting and reporting for the university's five on-campus farms and its five statewide research and education centers.

George Askew, Clemson Experiment Station director, promoted Ray to the position at the station, which oversees more than $17 million of agricultural and natural resources research funding and grants.

"Chris's experience with Clemson agricultural programs and public service operations made him the ideal person for this job," Askew said. "He's earned this post, doing outstanding work in every role we have asked him to take on in his 15 years with Clemson Public Service and Agriculture.”

Ray graduated from Clemson, earning his doctorate in plant breeding and environmental sciences. Since 1997, he has worked in the Public Service and Agriculture division, starting as an inspector for fertilizer and seed certification services.

During his years at Clemson, Ray has held many executive posts, including leading the departments of plant industry and agricultural services, as director of the Calhoun Field Laboratory and executive vice president of the S.C. Crop Improvement Association. For the past year he has been interning with the Experiment Station to become familiar with the unit’s administrative functions. 

The experiment station position will put Ray's talent and experience to use working on Clemson’s initiative to expand research resource in plant genetics and biotechnology, areas that will help provide jobs and innovations in food, fiber production, alternative fuels and forestry products.  

"I look forward to working with all of the researchers and assisting them to be successful," Ray said. "I am very excited about developing the Advanced Plant Technology Center at the Pee Dee REC and hiring a cadre of plant breeders and geneticists to develop crop varieties for South Carolina growers. The researchers work with Clemson Extension agents to introduce new varieties and address growers' challenges."   

A son in a farming family, Ray was born in Columbia and raised in Lexington. His family produced crops in Lexington, Richland and Orangeburg counties. "We grew just about any crop that would grow and produce on our poor sandy soils, everything from butter beans and collards to turnips and watermelons," he said. 

Today, Ray keeps the family farm going, managing much of it for forestry and wildlife and renting out the land that produces commodity crops, such as cotton and peanuts. With his characteristic soft laugh, Ray said that even after all he grew up doing, he still likes to farm and garden at his Upstate home, where motorists will slow down to view his sunflowers and corn.

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