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Kansas State University achievements
2008 Agriculture
* Michael Boland, a professor of agricultural economics at K-State, is a 2008 regional winner of an Excellence in College and University Teaching in the Food and Agricultural Sciences Award. The award is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and recognizes a select group of college and university teachers who excel at teaching, make a positive impact on student learning, and influence other teachers by example. Two national winners of the honor were selected, while Boland was one of six regional winners. K-State has now had nine winners of the prestigious award, second only to the University of Illinois. Boland specializes in agribusiness management and teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in agribusiness strategy and an international agribusiness course in conjunction with a study tour. Boland's teaching includes expanding his student's global understanding through experiential learning experiences. He has taught or lectured in more than 30 countries across the world and has led five international agribusiness study tours in Central and South America and in Australia and New Zealand. December 2008
* Two K-State graduate students won honors at the annual meeting of the North Central Weed Science Society. John Frihauf, doctoral student in agronomy, placed second with his oral presentation "Winter wheat response and weed control efficacy of saflufenacil applied with growth regulator herbicides." The presentation was co-authored by Phillip Stahlman, professor, and Patrick Geier, assistant scientist, at the K-State Agricultural Research Center-Hays. Justin Petrosino, master's student in agronomy, Sandusky, Ohio, placed first with his poster "Palmer amaranth and downy brome emergence and growth impacted by forage soybean cover crop." The poster was co-authored by agronomy faculty Anita Dille, associate professor; Kraig Roozeboom, assistant professor; and Mark Claassen, professor. Petrosino also was elected Chair of the Graduate Student Organization of the North Central Weed Science Society. December 2008
* The K-State Collegiate Crops Team placed second at both the Kansas City Board of Trade Collegiate Crops Contest and the Chicago Collegiate Crops Contest, both national competitions. The K-State team placed second in grain grading and in plant and seed identification, and fourth in seed analysis in the Nov. 18 competition at Kansas City. The team placed second in all three phases of the Nov. 22 contest in Chicago. December 2008
* K-State's award-winning master of agribusiness program recently earned a place as part of pop culture trivia. The program, which is the first graduate agribusiness degree in the nation to be offered through distance education, was an $800 question on the Oct. 13 "Jeopardy!" game show. The question, which in the "Jeopardy!" format is put as the answer, was: "If you're a slick, pressed-overalls Manhattan M.A.B., you have a master of agribusiness degree from here, K-State for short." M.A.B. stands for master of agribusiness. November 2008
* Molly Kuhlman, senior in bakery science and management, Ness City, is a 2008 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. She received a $24,000 scholarship from Rotary International to study at University College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. She will study rural agricultural development and broaden the scope of her grain science knowledge. She was nominated for the scholarship by the Northeast Kansas Rotary District, which includes the Manhattan Rotary Club and the Manhattan Konza Rotary Club. November 2008
* Kassim Al-Khatib and Alan Schlegel, professors of agronomy, have been named Fellows of the American Society of Agronomy. They were recognized at the society's annual meeting Oct. 5-9 in Houston, Texas. Al-Khatib's research focuses on plant-environment-herbicide interactions and herbicide-resistant plants. He and a colleague have recently introduced an herbicide-resistant sorghum technology, which will be commercialized in the near future. Schlegel, who is also an agronomist at K-State's Southwest Research Extension Center, focuses on nutrient and water management in dryland and limited irrigated cropping systems. November 2008
* Michel Ransom, a professor of agronomy, was recognized with the Soil Science Education Award from the Soil Science Society of America. The award was presented at the society's meeting Oct. 5-9 in Houston, Texas. Ransom is a professor of soil science and assistant head for teaching in K-State's department of agronomy. His research is in pedology. November 2008
* Chuck Rice, professor of agronomy, has been reappointed to serve a second two-year term as a member of the Agricultural Air Quality Task Force by Ed Schafer, U.S. secretary of agriculture. The role of the task force, which has 25 members from 12 states, is to advise the agriculture secretary on issues related to agricultural air quality, including strengthening and coordinating U.S. Department of Agriculture air quality research efforts and identifying cost-effective ways in which the agriculture industry can improve air quality. November 2008
* Two K-State students received 2008 pork industry scholarships. Hyatt Frobose received the top scholarship of $10,000, and Douglas Albright received a $2,500 scholarship. They were among the 19 college students from around the United States to receive the scholarships from the Pork Checkoff, Pioneer Hi-Bred and PIC as part of a strategy to develop the pork industry's human capital for the future. Both students are seniors in animal sciences and industry. November 2008
* The Fretzel, a wholegrain soft pretzel filled with exotic fruits, was the recipe for success of two K-State graduate students in food science in a student product development competition at the international meeting of the American Association of Cereal Chemists. Katie Krusemark and Katie Martson won first place and $3,000 for their creation, the Fretzel, which they developed through a food production development course taught by K-State's Fadi Aramouni and Kelly Getty. November 2008
* Sharita Lacey, K-State senior in animal sciences and industry, has received a 2008 Association of Student Advancement Programs' Outstanding Student Leader Award. A K-State advancement professional and Lacey's peers nominated her for the honor. She advanced to the final competition after being selected the association's District 6 outstanding student leader. As a member of the K-State Alumni Association's Student Alumni Board, Lacey has traveled extensively in Kansas and Nebraska to meet prospective K-State students through the association's Just for Juniors program. As the board's vice president of development, Lacey was responsible for planning the group's annual retreats and assisting with campus events, including Senior Send-Off, Wildcat Welcome Day, For Sophomores Only, the fall and spring activities carnivals and class reunions. She has held leadership positions in the College of Agriculture Ambassadors; Alpha of Clovia scholarship house; and in Kansas FFA as state vice president. Through her involvement in FFA, she has represented Kansas in Washington, D.C., Spain and Portugal. She also is a member of Blue Key, a senior leadership honor society. Sept. 2008
* A scientific team led by K-State grain scientists and economists and U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists has begun a three-year, science-based investigation on the cost and effectiveness of alternatives to the use of methyl bromide, the favored fumigant of the food processing industry. The Department of Agriculture-Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service awarded the K-State-led team $784,805 under its Methyl Bromide Transitions Program for a research and technology transfer project to facilitate a switch by the U.S. grain and food industry. The EPA has classified methyl bromide as a Class I ozone-depleting substance under the U.S. Clean Air Act. Sept. 2008
* A graduate student team from K-State was first in the team sprayer calibration event and was the third place overall graduate team at the North Central Weed Science Society Collegiate Weed Science Contest, Aug. 14, in Carlyle, Ill. Team members, all graduate students in agronomy and all from Manhattan, included Joy Abit, John Frihauf, Meshack Ndou and Haydee Ramirez. Anita Dille, associate professor, and Dallas Peterson, professor, from K-State's department of agronomy, coached the team. SGS Alvey Ag Research, a contract research company in Carlyle, hosted the contest. August 2008
* K-State was one of 16 universities nationwide recognized for bioenergy initiatives by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Bio Energy Awareness Days in Washington, D.C., June 19-22. K-State won a Grand Challenge award for a vision paper, "Food, Feed, Energy and Ecosystem Services: A Role for American Agriculture." Co-authors are agronomy professors Charles W. Rice and Scott Staggenborg, and Richard Nelson, associate professor and head of the Kansas Industrial Extension Service. The Grand Challenge is the major award made during the event, and promotes the development of a vision that the winning universities will contribute in the emerging bio economy. June 2008
* The K-State Soil Judging Team won first place overall at the 2008 National Soil Judging Contest. It is the first time K-State has won the national contest. The event was hosted by the University of Rhode Island and had 21 teams competing. The team is coached by Mickey Ransom, professor of agronomy. Team members, all agronomy majors, who placed individually in the competition include Leah Ferdinand, second place; Paul Hartley, sixth place; Ryan Cyr, 14th place; and Adam Heitman, 20th place. May 2008
* The K-State Crops Team won third place overall at the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Crops Contest April 18 at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas. The team also placed second in identification and third in the lab practical phases of the contest. Fifteen teams from two- and four-year colleges and universities participated in the competition. The K-State team is coached by Gerry Posler, professor of agronomy. April 2008
* K-State researchers Randy Phebus and Dick Oberst have been tapped by the U. S. Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center in Natick, Mass., to ensure what soldiers eat and drink is free of pathogenic microorganisms or biological toxins. Since 2005, Phebus and Oberst have taken tests used in the food industry to detect pathogens and evaluated them relative to the military mission. With about $1.7 million in research funding to date, they've looked at a few different methods and used them on about a dozen food types. April 2008
* Wheat researcher and university distinguished professor Bikram Gill is one of the most influential in his field, according to the Web site ISIHighlyCited.com. Gill is listed as one of the world's most influential researchers in the plant and animal science category. According to the site, his work was cited 2,177 times, which put him among the top half a percent of publishing authors. April 2008
* Lakshmikantha Channaiah, a doctoral student in grain science at K-State, was recognized for a research paper he presented at the Missouri Valley branch meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, March 14-15, in Liberty, Mo. His paper, "Antibiotic resistant and virulent enterococci in animal feed," was co-written with K-State's Subramanyam Bhadriraju, professor of grain science and industry, and Ludek Zurek, assistant professor of entomology. The paper received second place in the oral presentation category. April 2008
* Research and publications by faculty members in 2007 earned the department of plant pathology a top 10 ranking in The Chronicle of Higher Education's annual assessment of scholarly productivity. The department ranked eighth among all U.S. research universities. February 2008
* Ted T. Cable, a professor of park management and conservation, was selected for a monthlong Fulbright senior specialists project at the University of Bamako in the West African country of Mali. Cable, who also is assistant head of the department of horticulture, forestry and recreation resources, is spending the month of May training students, private-sector tour guides and Peace Corps volunteers in ecotourism and heritage tourism. January 2008
K-State College of Agriculture