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K-State Today

January 29, 2013

Kansas State Research and Extension January 2013 updates

Submitted by Debra Webb

In response to the shootings in Newtown, Conn., family and consumer sciences agents shared information from the Children, Youth, and Families Education and Research Network, or CYFERNET, website with parents helping their children cope with news of the tragedy.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science named four Kansas State University researchers among its 2012 fellows. The four fellows are: John Blair, university distinguished professor of biology; Ruth Welti, university distinguished professor of biology; Kun Yan Zhu, professor of entomology; and Ron Trewyn, vice president for research. K-State Research and Extension provides funding for research conducted by Zhu, Blair and Welti.

Four of the 11 K-State students chosen to present at the Capitol Graduate Research Summit Feb. 14 in Topeka are from the College of Agriculture. They are Michael Gibson, master’s student in grain science; Melissa Lynes, doctoral student in agricultural economics; Michael Joseph, doctoral student in grain science; and Kabita Kharel, master’s student in entomology.

Connie Kays (B.S. ’81, M.S. ’84 animal science) and Steve Irsik (B.S. ’69 agricultural economics) have been reappointed as K-State representatives to the Council for Agricultural Research, Extension and Teaching, or CARET. Kays is serving a four-year term as CARET liaison to the national Experiment Station Committee on Organization and Policy or ESCOP. Irsik was elected chair of the North Central CARET group in summer 2012 and will serve a two-year term.

Horticulture students grew 64 cultivars during the 2012 poinsettia trials. The Friends of KSU Gardens sold 450 of the plants to the public. Graduate student Josh Craver made a presentation to garden supporters about poinsettias — the No.1 potted flowering crop in the United States with $220 million in sales during the holidays. Professor Kim Williams works with the students.

A new greenhouse at the Agricultural Research Center–Hays was completed in September 2012. The greenhouse is used for research in plant pathology by Dallas Seifers, wheat breeding by Guorong Zhang, sorghum breeding by Ram Perumal, and entomology by J.P. Michaud. Funds for the greenhouse came from K-State, the Kansas Wheat Alliance, the Kansas Wheat Commission, a bequest from a WaKeeney farmer and the Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission.

The poster “Mitigation of Summer Stress of Roughstalk Bluegrass with Strobilurin Fungicides” by Cole Thompson, Jack Fry, Megan Kennelly, and Zachary Reicher won first at the recent Crop Science Society of America – Turfgrass Division international annual meeting in Cincinnati.

The Kansas Environmental Leadership Program honored its 2012 class during the Governor’s Conference on the Future of Water. Members are: Angela Anderson (B.S. ’97 animal science), Allen; Tej Attili, Horton; Cody Barilla (B.S. ’11 agronomy and Reno County agriculture and natural resources agent), Hutchinson; Lauren Clary, McPherson; Patricia Haines-Lieber, Topeka; Cindy Higgins, Topeka; Hoyt  Hillman, Wichita; Sara Jones, Augusta; Nicholas  Lev- endofsky, Republic; Terry Lyons, Burlington; Bob Muirhead, Hays; Michelle Probasco, Topeka; Mark Shriwise, Dodge City; Peter Tomlinson, Manhattan; Chloe Wilson, Hutchinson; and Devin Wilson (B.S. ’96 agronomy), Kansas City, Mo.,  www.ksre.ksu.edu/kelp.