Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

A newsletter for faculty, staff and students

September-October 2004 • Vol. 30, No. 5

People and Events

Departments, Centers, Branch Stations, other units and individuals may submit items to Amalie Holland, AGCS, AGRI 110 (ahollan@uark.edu). Eligible items include recent unit events, coming events, invited presentations, awards, foreign trips, election to leadership positions, new faculty and staff, retirements, etc. Include jpg photos @72 dpi.

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness

Eric Wailes gave an invited keynote address titled, "Trade liberalization in the global rice economy: Implications of the WTO Doha Round and the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement" at the VI Congress for Brazil's Rice Economy and the I Congress of Latin American Rice Economy in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, August 27.

Dr. Wailes moderated a selected paper session entitled “Agricultural Trade Liberalization,” and, along with Alvaro Durand-Morat, Linwood Hoffman, and Nathan Childs, presented a selected paper at the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA) annual meeting in Denver, Colorado from August 1-4, entitled, "Tariff escalation: Impacts on U.S. and global rice trade." 

Jennie Popp presented two papers at the AAEA meeting: “The SS-AAEA Quizbowl: Success In and Out of the Classroom a Three Year Study” and “Assessing the Benefits Of On-Farm Reservoirs and Tail-Water Recovery Systems,” coauthored by Dr. Wailes, Ken Young and Jim Smartt.

Walter H. Añez, Jayson Beckman and Valerien Pede participated in the graduate case study competition at the AAEA meeting. The purpose of the competition was to have students apply their knowledge of agricultural economics and agribusiness subjects to practical situations. Students were given the case 3 weeks prior to the meeting, where they presented their analysis and conclusion to a panel of judges. This year’s topic was Coors Brewing Company’s malt-barley contracting program. The assignment was to relate this program to business organization theories.

Bruce Ahrendsen, Mark Cochran, Andrew McKenzie, Dan Rainey, Mike Thomsen, Mike Popp, H.L. Goodwin, Rita Carreira, Rog Hogan and Brad Watkins also attended the meeting.

Janie Hipp and Dr. Wailes attended the 40th Annual Caribbean Food Crops Society Meeting in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, July 19-23.  Dr. Hipp and Dr. Wailes are leading a three year research program with Louis Peterson, U.S. Virgin Islands Sustainable Agriculture Extension coordinator, to study constraints affecting the linkages between agricultural production and processing with tourism and trade on the Virgin Islands.

Dr. Jennie Popp took two teams of undergraduate students to compete in the Ag-Econ Quizbowl in Denver.  Sarah Knox, Shannon Tubbs, Cliff Robinson, Josh Schader, Robert Shepherd and Jake Rice represented the AEAB department.

Dr. Jennie Popp and Dr. Hipp were also recipients of a $20,000 grant from the Women's Giving Circle.The grant will help fund a statewide conference for rural women in agriculture and will be organized by faculty in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences to bring Arkansas‚ women farmers and ranchers together to enhance their skills in the field.

ASU

Greg Phillips, Dean of the College of Agriculture at ASU and Director of Agricultural Research at ASU, on behalf of the Division of Agriculture, was recognized by his scientific colleagues recently.  The Society for In Vitro Biology has named Dr. Phillips a Fellow of the Society, an honor received by less than 5% of the membership.  The Fellow Award was presented at the 2004 World Congress on In Vitro Biology in San Francisco May 24.  The award recognizes “outstanding professional accomplishments and service to the Society in the area of Plant Biotechnology In Vitro Biology.”

Biological & Agricultural Engineering

Yanbin Li presented papers at the 2004 World Biosensors Congress Annual Meeting, May 24-26 in Granada, Spain; at the 2004 ASAE Annual International Meeting, August 1-4 in Ottawa; and at the 2004 IAFP Annual Meeting, August 8-11 in Phoenix. Dr. Li spent one month at Zhejiang University, China, conducting research on biosensors for rapid detection of foodborne pathogens and pesticide residues in Chinese food products in collaboration with Yibin Ying in biosystem engineering, Ping Wang in biomedical engineering and Weihuan Fang in animal sciences.

Dr. Li’s graduate and postdoctoral students, X.L. Su, Z. Liu, B.L. Swem, A.K. Pradhan and M. Varshney, along with B. Kim and Dr. Li, presented a total of four papers at the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting in Las Vegas July 12-16 and three at the ASAE Annual Meeting.

Liju Yang accepted a postdoctoral research associate position in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Purdue University. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in biological engineering last December, and then worked as a postdoctoral associate. 

Sreekala Bajwa, Ashish Mishra and Subodh Kulkarni attended the ASAE annual meeting, where Drs. Mishra and Bajwa presented a paper coauthored by Richard Norman. Dr. Bajwa also attended the International Precision Agriculture Conference in Minneapolis July 25-28, and presented a paper coauthored by Dr. Mishra and Morteza Mozaffari.

Indrajeet Chaubey and his research group, Kati White, Vijay Garg, Sumit Sen and Sudhanshu Panda, attended the annual conference of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers and presented a total of five research papers, some coauthored by Brian Haggard, Kristofor Brye, Marty Matlock, and Thomas Costello. Dr. Chaubey, Kati White and Chad Cooper also organized a one-day workshop on Simulating Watershed Response with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model in Little Rock on August 24.  Personnel from the Arkansas Soil and Water Conservation Commission, Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, and the University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture attended the workshop.

Food Science

Rusty Bautista, Amy Matsler, and Terry Siebenmorgen presented papers at the "International Quality Grains Conference," a global symposium on quality-assured, traceable and biosecure grains and oilseeds for the 21st Century.  The conference was held July 19-22 in Indianapolis.

Ya-Jane Wang gave an invited presentation titled, "Structure and Functionality of Starch," at a symposium on the Application of Biotechnology in Agriculture at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology in Taiwan June 17. She also gave an invited presentation titled "Starch and Starch Derived Products for Food Applications" to the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences June 24.

Andrew Proctor gave an invited presentation at a symposium on Renewable Resources and Energy, at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna.  The presentation was titled, "The Potential for Renewable Materials From Rice Hulls in USA, with Specific Reference to Arkansas." The meeting was sponsored by the Austrian Department of Agriculture, the Austrian Chemical Society and Austrian Biotechnology Society.

Werner Praznik, a visiting professor from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, provided lectures and seminars in the Department of Food Science from July 15-August 15 along with discussions with students and faculty on food carbohydrate chemistry.

Rui Xiong and Jean Francois Meullenet presented papers at the Seventh Sensometrics Meeting held at the University of California, Davis, July 28-30.

Department of Food Science faculty and students presented posters and papers at the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting. The meeting was held in Las Vegas from July 12 through 16.

Horticulture

Two turf students were recently recognized by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America for their excellence. John Kauffman and Chase Turpin have been selected as recipients of the GCSAA Scholars Award, a nationally competitive scholars program that recognizes outstanding undergraduate students in turfgrass management. John was selected for the top award, the Mendenhall Award, which carries a cash award of $6,000, while Chase was selected in the Scholars category, which carries a $1,500 cash award. The full list of winners can be viewed at: http://www.gcsaa.org/students/scholarships/winners.asp

Fayetteville native Philip Thompson, M.S. Horticulture 1986, is serving as Deputy Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador, El Salvador, where he's trying his hand at tropical horticulture.

Human Environmental Sciences

Mary Warnock presented a refereed paper entitled, "Biodegradation Assessment of Three Cellulose Fabrics," at the 20th World Congress of the International Federation for Home Economics in Kyoto during August. Co-authors were Duane Wolf and Kaaron Davis, both in CSES.

Plant Pathology

Several students placed in the graduate student competitions at the annual meeting of the Society of Nematologists, held in Estes Park, Colorado, August 7-11. Paula Agudelo, who recently completed her Ph.D. degree under the direction of Bob Robbins, wonBest Student Oral Presentation at the meetings. Scott Monfort, who is a Ph.D. degree candidate under the direction of Terry Kirkpatrick and John Rupe, tied for third place in the same competition. TamraJackson, who received her M.S. degree from Plant Pathology under the direction of Dr. Kirkpatrick and Dr. Rupe, and who is currently a Ph.D. degree candidate at the University of Illinois, won first place in the Student Poster Competition.

Poultry

Five students received certificates of excellence for presentations made at the Poultry Science Association's Annual Meeting held in St. Louis, July 25-29. Undergraduate student Savannah Henderson, whose advisor is Billy Hargis, received an award for her oral presentation; and undergrad Nick Tinsley, whose co-advisors are Muhammed Iqbal and Walter Bottje, received an award for his poster presentation.  Graduate students receiving awards were Kim Coles, under the direction of Dan Donoghue; and Mark Chapman, working under Bob Wideman; and Anne Fanatico, whose advisors are Casey Owens and Jason Emmert.

The department’s judging team won third place at the 57th Annual U.S. Poultry and Egg Association National Poultry Judging Contest held April 1-2 at Louisiana State University. Team members were Dustin Biery, Drew Parker, Neda Tilley and Cody Turner. Jason Emmert acted as coach for the team.

Susan Watkins gave invited presentations earlier this year at the 2004 Perry County Poultry Production Meeting; the Annual International Pheasant Management Seminar in Janesville, Wisconsin; the Midwest Poultry Federation Convention in Minneapolis; and the Louisiana Broiler Symposium in Shreveport. Dr. Watkins coordinated the Turkey Enteritis Workshop in February in Rogers, where U of A speakers included Lisa Newberry, David Chapman and Dayton Steelman. Dr. Watkins also completed the final part of the Extension Service First Leadership Training Class in Washington, DC, in March. She has been named director of the National Egg Quality School.