The California Agricultural Experiment Station

In 1862, the Congress of the United States passed the Morrill Act donating public lands to the several states and territories for the establishment of colleges "for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts." Later, Congress recognized the need for continuing research and study of agricultural problems and in 1887 passed the Hatch Act establishing an agricultural experiment station in each state in connection with the land-grant colleges.

At the University of California, the Agricultural Experiment Station (AES) has three branches: one each at the Berkeley, Davis, and Riverside campuses. Each of the branches is headed by an Associate Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station who is also Dean of that campus's college of natural and agricultural resources. The Vice President of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) is the Director of AES and Cooperative Extension and is headquartered in Oakland in the Office of the President of the University.

The College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences was created in 1974 by a merger of the physical sciences with the biological and agricultural sciences, but our teaching and research traditions go back a century to the Agricultural Experiment Station-Citrus Research Center, founded in 1907 as the Citrus Experiment Station. See a timeline of notable events during that 100-year history.

About 120 of CNAS scientists hold joint teaching and research positions with the College and the Experiment Station, and about 25 hold Cooperative Extension Specialist positions, most jointly with research or teaching appointments.