UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When Sarah Flanagan looks back on her college career in plant science and food security, she credits one organization as being the most influential.
“I always credit the World Food Prize as my inspiration for where I am today,” said Flanagan, a doctoral student in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. “I loved my undergraduate experience at Cornell, and now I am enjoying Penn State, but my passion all started with the World Food Prize.”
Flanagan, of Galloway, New Jersey, is pursuing her doctorate in agricultural and environmental plant science, a field that enables her to explore ways that plants and crops can be grown to improve food security and nutrition.
The World Food Prize Foundation is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to recognizing and advancing innovations that improve the quality, quantity and availability of food worldwide. Founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug, the foundation awards the annual World Food Prize.
Flanagan said her interest in plant science and food security started with a high school research project when she was a junior at Cedar Creek High School in New Jersey.
Her teacher, Lisa Martinelli, required students to research food security in a foreign country as part of an environmental science magnet project. Flanagan chose Iceland and presented her findings to professors at Rutgers University.
Martinelli said Flanagan’s success was predictable as early as her high school project. Flanagan learned that Iceland was becoming more popular as a tourist destination and how that was causing the country to have to import more food.
“In response, she came up with programs to use local foods more effectively and prepare the country for peaks in demand,” Martinelli said. “I am super excited and proud of the work she has done.”
The project was part of the Global Youth Institute, an international program sponsored by the World Food Prize, and quickly led to other projects.
“I enjoyed learning about global food systems and the different ways I could help with global food security,” she said. “I have always enjoyed teaching and education, and my goal is to become a professor with a research appointment.”
Flanagan is in her fifth year supporting the World Food Prize and will return to Des Moines, Iowa, for the Borlaug Dialogue, this time as a member of the Reserve Corps — a group of college students and alumni who help with the behind-the-scenes work of hosting the dialogue, Oct. 20-22.
This will be her second time attending the Borlaug Dialogue in person, an international event that brings professionals together each year to discuss world hunger.
One of Flanagan’s interests is plant nutrient uptake and increasing certain nutrients, such as zinc and iron, in plants. She said her research at Penn State focuses on designing crops that provide greater amounts of iron and zinc.
This work is especially important because about 2 billion people suffer from iron deficiency and some 30% of the world’s soils are considered iron-limiting for plant growth, according to Erin Connolly, professor of plant science and one of Flanagan’s academic advisers at Penn State.
“Sarah has a true passion for sustainable agriculture,” Connolly said. “Her work seeks to grow plants and food crops in ways that result in greater nutrient density, which would go a long way toward solving a huge problem that exists in agriculture.”
Flanagan is co-advised by Maria Brossi, assistant research professor of microbial-mediated plant nutrition at Penn State.
Connolly said she was impressed by Flanagan’s work in plant breeding and nutrient management and her passion for sustainable agriculture and how that is resonating in her coursework and research.
Flanagan said she’d like her research to one day help people who suffer from severe diseases, including hidden hunger.
“I enjoy seeing my work make a difference and I know that food security and sustainable agriculture hold key opportunities in the world,” she said.
Flanagan has also received several scholarships, including the 2025 Academic Undergraduate Scholarship Award, sponsored by the Tri-Societies, which includes the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America and the Soil Science Society of America.
Rebecca Picard, senior director of global youth programs and partnerships for the World Food Prize, invited Flanagan to this year’s Borlaug Dialogue.
“I first met Sarah at the New York Youth Institute at Cornell in 2025, where she was volunteering to help execute the program there,” Picard said. “Her professionalism and excitement for her work and for the foundation’s youth programs really stuck with me.”
Picard worked with Flanagan during the 2025 Borlaug Dialogue and said she is happy to see her return.
“Sarah is a strong ambassador for the youth programs,” Picard said. “She is curious, motivated and really dedicated to making meaningful change in the world.”