Distinguished Chi Alumnus Alan Ayers Profiled by University

Alan Ayers, North Carolina State ’71, is driven to make life better – especially in his community.

The NC State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) recently featured Ayers as an accomplished alumnus and researcher. Ayers spoke on the importance of being a part of your community, using science to improve lives, his love for NC State – and gave Phi Tau a shout-out in the process.

Ayers obtained both his B.S. in zoology in 1974 and his Ph.D. in plant pathology in 1985 from NC State and has worked closely with NC State over his 30-year career as a regulatory scientist in the agrochemical industry. Recently, Ayers has given his time to support N.C. Plant Sciences Initiatives, which “is making lives better through innovative, interdisciplinary research that’s helping to solve some of the most complex issues facing agriculture and the world today.” He also helped develop a regulatory science course at NC State and is involved in the ZERO by 40 project – an initiative to end malaria globally by 2040.

You can read the full feature here. In the following excerpt, Dr. Ayers mentions the role Phi Tau had in his collegiate career.

From CALS:

You spent a lot of time working and studying at NC State. What are some of your happier memories here? 

There are too many to list. We won a National Basketball championship in ‘74, and we had some great football teams led by Lou Holtz. I was a part of that era, and it was almost a fairytale life. One thing I specifically did was join a social fraternity: Phi Kappa Tau. I did that during my undergrad years. I met a lot of people from all over the country and was exposed to guys who liked to have fun. We had a blast, but we were good students. We worked hard and played hard. A ton of them are still my friends today. We’ve played golf and watched football games. We’d complain about NC State sports when we’d lose and celebrate when we win. It was a key component of me being happy at NC State. It was a family away from home. 

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