On Aug. 1, 2023, the U.S. Dept of Agriculture (USDA) announced the groundbreaking of a new Plant Sciences Building that will house scientists from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and Washington State University (WSU).

The university’s departments of Plant Pathology, Crop and Soil sciences, and Horticulture will inhabit the new building alongside federal scientists and four ARS research units: Wheat Health, Genetics and Quality; Grain Legume Genetics and Physiology; Northwest Sustainable Agroecosystems; and Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing.

The collaboration between WSU and ARS began in 1931 and is one of the nation’s most robust federal-state partnerships.