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Past Global Food Seed Grant recipients
This funding is intended to support innovative research in all aspects of global food systems, with particular interest in projects that are interdisciplinary; promote job creation and economic development in the state of Kansas; engage graduate and/or undergraduate students; and partner with industry, particularly those based in Kansas.
All proposals were peer-reviewed by faculty members with a variety of relevant expertise.
Each year teams present their research findings. You can watch these presentations on our YouTube channel by clicking one of the drop downs below, then clicking the link in the PI's name.
FY 2022 Recipients
- Sajid Alavi, grain science and industry; Yonghui Li, grain science and industry; Martin Talavera, food, nutrition, dietetics and health: "Plant-based meat for sustainable food systems."
- Shih-Kang Fan, mechanical and nuclear engineering; Jianfa Bai, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology: "STEC POCT: Single-cell digital PCR detection of shiga toxin-producing E. coli with point-of-care digital microfluidics."
- Mithila Jugulam, agronomy; Asif Mohammad, Heartland Plant Innovations: "Development of herbicide-tolerant wheat: Valuable resource for improved weed Management in Kansas and beyond."
- Phillip Lancaster, clinical sciences; Chad Paulk, grain science and industry; Raghavendra Amachawadi, clinical sciences: "Enhancing the economic value and business viability of food waste to animal feed conversion."
- Victor Gomez Leon, animal sciences and industry; James Drouillard, animal sciences and industry: "Effect of diet supplementation with omega-3 on reproduction and milk production of lactating Holstein dairy cows."
- Eleni Pliakoni, horticulture and natural resources; Martin Talavera, food, nutrition, dietetics and health; Terry Griffin, agricultural economics: "Evaluating the effect of innovative food labeling technology on produce quality, safety and consumer acceptability."
- Prathap Parameswaran, civil engineering; Ganga Hettiarachchi, agronomy: "Leveraging the circular bioeconomy: Sustainable recovery and optimization of slow-release biofertilizers from livestock wastewater."
- Yong Cheng Shi, grain science and industry; Umut Yucel, animal sciences and industry: "Evaluating novel octenylsuccinic anhydride modified starches for emulsion and encapsulation application."
- Xiuzhi Sun, grain science and industry; Weiqun George Wang, food, nutrition, dietetics and health; John Jaeger, animal sciences and industry: "Affordable regenerative beef proteins from cattle blood waste for innovative food proteins."
- Dana Vanlandingham, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology; John Leslie, plant pathology; Stephen Higgs, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology: "Low-cost feed and low-level exposure to mycotoxins may have high-cost consequences."
- Yi Zheng, grain science and industry; Gordon Smith, grain science and industry; Yonghui Li, grain science and industry; Donghai Wang, biological and agricultural engineering: "Developing a distilled alcoholic beverage program utilizing grain sorghum associated with coproducts valorization."
- Morgan Zumbaugh, animal sciences and industry; Travis O’Quinn, animal sciences and industry: "Understanding skeletal muscle metabolism as a means to improve livestock production efficiency."
Fall 2020 Recipients
- Manreet Bhullar, horticulture and natural resources; Trevor Hefley, statistics; Terry Griffin, agricultural economics: "Application of Ultraviolet light technology to enhance the safety of agricultural water on Kansas fresh produce farms."
- Michael Chao, animal sciences and industry; Ruth Welti, biology: "Exploring the potential effect of anti-phospholipase A2 antibody to extend beef shelf-life in a beef liposome model system."
- Jonathan Dessi-Olive, architecture; Richard Todd, plant pathology; Vincent Amanor-Boadu, agricultural economics: "Sustainable Development for Rural Kansas through Fungi-based Building Materials."
- Roman Pogranichniy, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology; Chad Paulk, grain science and industry; Cassandra Jones, animal sciences and industry: "Development of an in vitro assay to assess the infectivity of viruses in animal feed."
- Kathryn Reif, diagnostic medicine and pathobiology; Qing Kang, statistics; John Jaeger, K-State Research and Extension Agricultural Research Center/animal science and industry; Emily Reppert, clinical sciences: "Evaluation of anaplasmosis on commercial beef bull breeding soundness."
Spring 2020 Recipients
- Christer B. Aakeroy, chemistry; Ganga Hettiarachchi, agronomy: Exploring co-crystal technologies for efficient and sustainable nutrient management.
- Doina Caragea, computer science; Krishna Jagdish SV, agronomy: Performing novel high-throughput quantification of rice chalkiness using deep learning approaches.
- Edgar Chambers IV, food nutrition dietetics and health; Sarah Sexton-Bowser, agronomy, Center for Sorghum Improvement: Marketing sorghum for human food consumption.
- Ryan Hansen, chemical engineering; Tom Platt, biology: Site-specific screening and development of biofertilizer formulations for enhanced yield of corn.
- Jeongdae Im, civil engineering; Mike Brouk, animal science and industry: Eco-friendly forage management towards sustainable cattle industry.
- Sonny Lee, biology; Megan C. Niederwerder, diagnostic medicine/pathobiology: Identification of microbiome communities and core functional microbiota in healthy pigs across the stages of production.
- Raj Kumar Pal, mechanical and nuclear engineering; Kaliramesh Silveru, grain science and industry: A combined experimental and computational approach to prevent plastic contamination from gran handling equipment.
- Caterina Scoglio, electrical and computer engineering; David Amrine, Beef Cattle Institute; Don Gruenbacher, electrical and computer engineering: Increasing safety and trust in beef cattle production: a blockchain approach for sharing movement data.
- Vaishali Sharda, biological and agricultural engineering; Katherine Nelson, geography: Quantifying agricultural and social vulnerability to climate change in the Eastern Kansas River Basin to inform decision-making.
- Aleksey Sheshukov, biological and agricultural engineering; Lucas Haag, Northwest Research-Extension Center; Jonathan Aguilar, Southwest Research-Extension Center; Bill Golden, agricultural economics; Dan Devlin, Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment: Quantifying ET, water stress, and economic benefits for sustainable cotton production in Kansas.
- Valentina Trinetta, Food Science Institute, animal sciences and industry; Cassandra Jones, animal sciences and industry; Susan Rensing, gender, women and sexuality studies: The journey of salmonella enterica serotype 4, [5], 12:i:- in pork production chain: from feed to fork.
Fall 2019 Recipients
- Umut Yucel, Animal Science; Timothy Durrett, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics; Valentina Trinetta, Food Science Institute/Animal Science & Industry: Sustainable and biodegradable food packaging applications using sorghum DDGS.
- Kaliramesh Siliveru, Grain Science & Industry; Suprem R. Das, Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering; Randall Phebus, Food Science Institute: Rapid Detection and Mitigation Techniques to Prevent the Potential Risk of E. coli Contamination in the Wheat Supply Chain.
- Sarah Zukoff, Entomology; Vipan Kumar, Agronomy: Skills lost to the age of GMO’s, creating IPM Leaders to thrive in 21st century farming.
- Audrey Joslin, Geography; Jason Bergtold, Ag Economy; Marcellus Caldas, Geography: Agricultural Food Production and the Conservation Reserve Program in the Context of Wildfire: Assessing Rural Perceptions and Land Management in the U.S. Southern Plains.
- Prathap Parameswaran, Civil Engineering; Ganga Hettiarachchi, Soil and Environmental Chemistry: Closing the loop: Sustainable food production through integrated recovery of biofertilizers and water for reuse from animal waste operations.
- Sara Rosenkranz, Food, Nutrition, Dietetics & Health; Yong-Cheng Shi, Grain Science and Industry: Long-term consumption of Resistant Starch Type-4 (RS4): Implications for obesity and chronic disease.
- Donghai Wang, Biological & Agricultural Engineering; Weiqun Wang, Food, Nutrition, Dietetics and Health; Jason Griffin, Horticulture: Hemp: A New Crop for Nutritious Food in Kansas.
- Raghavendra Amachawadi, College of Veterinary Medicine; T.G. Nagaraja, Microbiology – Veterinary Medicine; Yonghui Li, Grain Science and Industry: Evaluation of antimicrobial activities of sorghum phenolic compounds against liver abscess-causing pathogens.
- Yonghui Li, Grain Science & Industry; Kadri Koppel, Food, Nutrition, Dietetics and Health: Screen and Identify Sustainable Plant-Protein Sources as Alternatives to Animal-Protein Foods.