K-State achievements--2004 Agriculture

Kansas State University achievements

2004 Agriculture

* Jim Campbell, adjunct assistant professor of entomology at K-State, has been selected to receive the 2004 Agricultural Research Service Early Career Research Scientist of the Year Award for the Northern Plains Area. Campbell is also a United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Grain Marketing and Production Research Center research entomologist.Each year, area personnel select a scientist who is early in her/his career to receive the Early Career Research Scientist of the Year Award. The award is given to commend the creative efforts, scientific leadership and major research achievements of Agricultural Research Service scientists. Early career scientists are those who began their permanent research scientist career with Agricultural Research Service within the last seven years and completed their highest degree within the last 10 years. Campbell was recognized for pioneering research on stored-product insect pest behavior and ecology and its application to improving integrated pest management in food facilities. December 2004

* Janice Swanson's challenging and innovative approach to teaching and learning is among the reasons the K-State professor and head of the department of animal sciences and industry was named to receive the 2004 U.S. Department of Agriculture's Excellence in College and University Teaching in the Food and Agricultural Sciences Award-North Central Region. Swanson was among eight regional winners of the award, which includes a $2,000 stipend to be used to improve teaching at the recipient's university or college. The award was presented at the annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges in San Diego, Calif., Nov. 13-16, 2004. With this honor, Swanson becomes the eighth K-State recipient of the award. Only the University of Illinois has had as many recipients. November 2004

* Seven K-State entomology graduate students won awards at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, Nov. 14-17, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The K-State students, who received first and second-place awards for the Entomological Society of America Presidential Prize, received the highest number of awards given to a single institution in the United States. November 2004

* A K-State graduate student was recognized for her research in entomology. Rizana Mahroof, a doctoral student in entomology, was awarded the C.C. Burkhardt Memorial Graduate Student Award for Best Paper at the Rocky Mountain Conference of Entomologists. The award was presented at the conference, Aug. 1-5, in Woodland Park, Colo. Mahroof, from Sri Lanka, won the award for her presentation "Relative Susceptibility of Red Flour Beetle Life Stages Subjected to Heat Treatment." September 2004

* For the third consecutive year, a K-State University agronomy student has won the prestigious Hank Beachell Future Leader Scholarship awarded by the American Society of Agronomy, along with the American Science Foundation. Jennifer Chestnut, senior in agronomy, Abilene, will receive the award in November at the American Society of Agronomy's national meeting. The purpose of the Hank Beachell Future Leader Scholarship is to expand the agricultural knowledge of undergraduate students participating in activities that enhance their university studies. The scholarship was established in recognition of Beachell's life-long commitment to advancing the knowledge of agriculture through his work in rice breeding and development. Only one scholarship is awarded each year. Kyle Cott, a May 2004 K-State graduate, won the award in 2003; May 2003 graduate Jesse Poland was the 2002 recipient. September 2004

* Kun Yan Zhu, K-State associate professor of entomology, has been selected by the National Research Council of the National Academies to receive the prestigious National Research Council's Summer Faculty Fellowship. The National Research Council administers the Summer Faculty Programs for the Air Force and the Environmental Protection Agency. The program allows faculty to conduct a focused research project in a federal laboratory during the summer months. The selection process takes into consideration the research the applicant proposes to conduct and the benefit of the program to the individual's academic role. Zhu's fellowship includes a stipend for 10 weeks and a travel, room and board allowance. Zhu will use his fellowship to undertake research in the area of pesticide toxicogenomics, at the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory of the Environmental Protection Agency at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina during the summer months and will continue his work in the same laboratory during his sabbatical leave. Toxicogenomics is a scientific sub-discipline that combines toxicology, the study of the nature and effects of poisons, with genomics, the investigation of the way that our genetic make-up, the genome, translates into biological functions. April 2004

* The Kansas State University Crops Judging Team won the 2004 North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Crops Contest April 23 at Monmouth, Ill. They also won this title in 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2003. The team swept every honor by placing first, second, third and fourth individually and winning all four sections of the contest: Plant and Seed Identification, Agronomic Calculations, Laboratory Practical, and Agronomic Quiz. This is the first time a K-State team has achieved the top four individual placings. April 2004

* Bhadriraju Subramanyam, professor of grain science and industry, received the 2004 Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for his research and education on heat treatment as a methyl bromide alternative. The agency established the award in 1990 to recognize leadership, dedication and technical achievements in protecting the Earth's ozone layer. The award was judged by an international panel representing government, industry and international non-governmental organizations. April 2004

* K-State University entomology students came away with four awards from the Entomological Society of America North Central Branch annual meetings March 28-31, in Kansas City, Mo. The student awards included a certificate and cash prize. Andy Allen, graduate student in grain science, received a first place award for his paper, "Traps and product samples as indicators of stored-product insects in flour mills." It was co-authored with Subramanyam Bhadriraju, professor of grain science. Matthew Grieshop, doctoral student in entomology, received second place for his paper, "Biological control of the Indian meal moth on finished stored products using egg and larval parasitoids." It was co-authored with James Nechols, professor of entomology, and Paul Flinn, adjunct professor of entomology. Kiffnie Holt, graduate student in entomology, also received as second place honor with her paper, "Developing components of IPM for two-spotted spider mite on greenhouse floricultural crops." It was co-authored with Nechols and David Margolies, professor of entomology. Huarong Li, doctoral student in entomology, captured a second-place award for his paper, "Reduced trypsin-like proteinase activity is the major mechanism of resistance to Cry1Ab in a dipel-resistant European corn borer strain." It was co-authored with Randy Higgins, professor of entomology, and Brenda Oppert, adjunct assistant professor of entomology. April 2004

* K-State students in the College of Agriculture came away with five of 13 graduate and undergraduate student paper and poster awards from the Western Society of Weed Science annual meetings March 9-11 in Colorado Springs, Colo. Jeanne Falk, Atchison, graduate student in agronomy, placed first in both her poster and paper presentations. Her poster, "Survey of common waterhemp response to Protox- and ALS-inhibiting herbicides," was co-authored by professors of agronomy Kassim Al-Khatib and Dallas Peterson. Her paper, "Rapid assay of plant response to protoporphyrinogen oxidase (Protox)-inhibiting herbicides," was also co-authored by Al-Khatib and Peterson. Falk is a 1998 graduate of Atchison County Community High School in Effingham. Eric Blinka, Manhattan, graduate student in agronomy, placed third with his paper presentation, "Relative competitiveness of Palmer amaranth based on early-season growth analysis in corn," co-authored by Anita Dille, assistant professor of agronomy. Jon-Joseph Armstrong, Muscotah, senior in agronomy, was first with his poster, "Correlation of site-specific soil properties and growth patterns of winter annual/biennial weed populations." Armstrong is a 2000 graduate of Atchison County Community High School in Effingham. His poster was co-authored by Dille. Leandro Perugini, Argentina, graduate student in agronomy, placed first with his poster presentation, "Longspine sandbur ecology in cultivated sunflower," co-authored with Dille and Phillip Stahlman, professor of agronomy, Agricultural Research Center-Hays. April 2004

* Lynn Schwarz, senior in animal sciences and industry with a minor in agricultural economics at K-State, won a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. According to Rotary International, the purpose of the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship is "to further international understanding and friendly relations among people of different countries." Since 1947, it has provided the necessary support for more than 30,000 men and women from 100 different nations to study abroad. Schwarz, Gower, Mo., was notified of the award in fall 2003. Schwarz will use the scholarship for a yearlong study abroad experience at Lincoln University in New Zealand where she will be studying international agricultural policy and international dairy marketing. February 2004

K-State College of Agriculture