On March 21, 2017Dr. Alberto Pantoja, Midwest Area Associate Director of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) offered our first Role Model Seminar entitled Research in Foreign Lands: Opportunities, Challenges and Rewards. He shared some of his experiences when he worked with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia, the Subarctic Agricultural Research Unit (SARU) in Fairbanks, Alaska and with the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in South America. Dr. Pantoja is internationally recognized for the development of practical approaches for the biological control of insect pests. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in the scientific literature and 75 lay articles for growers and crop protection specialists.