Business N.C. Names CAES Dean Ahmedna to ‘Power List’

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Aug. 3, 2023) – Mohamed Ahmedna, dean of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES) at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, has been named to Business N.C. magazine’s Power List in the area of agriculture.

The magazine lists the state’s most influential leaders in such categories as agriculture, economic development, life sciences, health care, media and communication, transportation and more. This issue marks the first time an Aggie agriculturalist has appeared in the feature.

Under Ahmedna’s tenure as CAES dean, which began in 2018, its research portfolio has nearly doubled to almost $40 million per year, including such areas as agricultural technology, climate-smart practices, sustainable agribusiness, and food, nutrition and health. The college has introduced its first Ph.D. program; enhanced its infrastructure with a multi-million dollar Research and Extension Farm Pavilion, a state-of-the-art facility for educational programming and events; launched multiple facility renovation projects; put new digital agricultural tools into practice at the 492-acre University Farm; and expanded outreach efforts with increased Extension funding.

Ahmedna has 22 years of experience in teaching, academic administration and applied research. As principal or co-principal investigator, he has received more than $55 million in competitive grants and authored more than 200 publications and presentations. As the founding director of N.C. A&T’s Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, his research focused on value-added product development with emphasis on functional foods for human health, and lifestyle interventions for health promotion and disease prevention.

Ahmedna was a professor and center director at A&T from 2000 to 2012 before serving as associate dean for research and graduate studies at Qatar University. In 2017, he was selected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science as a science and technology policy at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a position he held until rejoining A&T in 2018.

The recipient of several awards of excellence, Ahmedna received the 2008 Thurgood Marshall distinguished faculty award, the 2007 N.C. A&T Outstanding Senior Researcher Award, and the 2005 USAID George Washington Carver Agricultural Excellence Award.

Ahmedna holds a bachelor’s degree in fisheries and ocean engineering from the Institut Agronomique et Veterinaire Hassan II, Morocco. He holds a Ph.D. in food science from Louisiana State University (LSU) along with three master’s degrees: one in food science from LSU, one in applied statistics from LSU and one in business administration (MBA) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.