Letter of Support for Expo 2031 Minnesota, USA from Tom Fisher / University of Minnesota

January 15, 2024

As a former dean and current director of the Minnesota Design Center at the University of Minnesota, I am writing to confirm our support of the efforts of EXPO 2031 to bring an International Horticultural Expo to Minnesota. The University of Minnesota is the state’s primary research institution and land-grant university and it is one of the most comprehensive universities of its kind in the country, with all of the horticultural and land-based fields as well as all of the health and human services fields on one campus.

The theme of EXPO 2031 – Human/Nature – is a natural fit for the University of

Minnesota. We have one of the country’s largest horticultural sciences departments as well as one of the largest university based academic health centers, so our research community has a lot of knowledge to share about both humans and nature. At the same time, my colleague, Dingliang Yang, and I have engaged our students in conducting research and doing design work related to

EXPO 2031. We see tremendous opportunities to leverage the talent and energy of young people such as our students, who have new ways of thinking about what an Expo can be and how it might operate, and we look forward to continuing to engage our research colleagues and college students as work on the Expo progresses.

The University of Minnesota is also one of the leading American universities involved in integrating the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals into many aspects of our teaching and research. We are incorporating the SDG framework into the core curriculum of the university and also identifying all of the ways in which students, staff, and faculty are making progress in one or more of the SDG’s. We were pleased to see the SDG colored circle in the EXPO 2031 logo and we are eager to help integrate the international SDG work going on at the university with the work of the Expo.

We are excited by the possibility of Minnesota – and the U.S. – hosting an International Horticultural Expo for the first time and we would welcome a chance to work with you and your team to help make this very best event possible.