Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences
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Table of Contents • Notable • College and campus enrollment at record highs • New faculty members enrich variety of programs • Chair holder is culinary tourism expert • Childcare center architects approved • Kent Rorie joins Vice President's staff • Arkansas wins national IFT College Bowl • Savoy forest used for research, extension projects • Turfgrass specialist receives national award • Weed science team wins Southern Region Contest • Faculty member's colleagues host benefit concert • 'Corps of Discovery' lecture scheduled • New soybean variety described at Pine Tree Field Day • NEREC observes 50th anniversary at field day • Vegetable Substation hosts Southern Pea Field Day • Field day features turfgrass programs • Food science sponsors MasterFoods USA summer interns • Habitat project selected for USGBC study • Johnson consults on blackberries in Nanjing
Vision Credits
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New faculty members join variety of programs Short profiles are provided below of eight new faculty members in a variety of Division of Agriculture and Bumpers College teaching, research and extension programs.
Leslie Edgar has joined the agricultural and extension education faculty as an assistant professor. She is teaching, researching, and assisting with undergraduate and graduate advisements in agricultural communications. Born in Miles City, Mont., and raised in Kuna, Idaho, Edgar has a B.S. and an M.S. degree from Utah State University and a Ph.D. in agriculture education with support areas in agricultural communications, leadership education, and distance education from Texas A&M University. Edgar was an education coordinator, then grants and membership coordinator with the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nev. from November 2001 to August 2004. Since that time, she was development director at the American West Heritage Center in Wellsville, Utah before becoming a graduate teaching assistant at Texas A&M University. Edgar and her husband, Don, an assistant professor at South Dakota State University, have five children. Robert Harrington is a new associate professor in human environmental sciences. In August, he was named the 21stCentury Endowed Chair in Hospitality and is director of the school's restaurant and hospitality program. Harrington’s primary research interests include strategic management, and food and wine.
Originally from Moses Lake, Wash., Harrington has a B.B.A. degree from Boise State University. He has an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. in strategic management from Washington State University. Harrington is also a certified executive chef by the American Culinary Federation. Harrington has taught at Washington State University and the University Center César Ritz in Brig, Switzerland. Following that, he was a dean and professor at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La. Prior to joining the UA faculty, Harrington was the M.B.A. program coordinator and associate professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario. The first edition of his book, “Food & Wine Pairing: A Sensory Experience,” was published earlier this year. Harrington recently received the 2007 Canadian Association of Foodservice Professionals Champion of Education & Training, Educator Award and the 2007 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism research article of the year award. Harrington and his wife, Teresa, have two grown sons.
Charles Ogbeide, new assistant professor of hospitality and restaurant management in the School of Human Environmental Sciences, is focusing his teaching on hotel operations along with meeting and convention planning. He is currently researching how to motivate employees to reduce turnover rates and plans to study the effects of tourism and the competitive index on community and hospitality development. He also plans to study factors that motivate people to particular destinations. Before joining the UA faculty in August, Ogbeide was an assistant professor at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall and had been a teaching and research assistant at the University of Missouri at Columbia. With over 24 years experience in hotel and restaurant management, Ogbeide has a special interest in management training and leadership development. Ogbeide has a B.S. degree from Lincoln University and an M.B.A. from Columbia College in Columbia, Mo. He also has B.S. and M.S. degrees and a Ph.D. in agricultural education with an emphasis in hospitality management and leadership development from the University of Missouri at Columbia. A Nigerian citizen, Ogbeide is married with three children.
Yi Liang joined the biological and agricultural engineering department as an assistant professor in May. She is researching air quality, emission and transport of air pollutants from animal feeding operations, as well as the development and evaluation of emission prevention and control technologies. Liang received her Ph.D. degree in bioresource engineering from the University of Alberta, Canada, in 2000. She was a postdoctoral research associate at Iowa State University and a research scientist at the USDA/ARS in Oregon before joining the UA faculty. Born and raised in Beijing, Liang is married with a 7-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter.
Scott Monfort is a new assistant professor and extension plant pathologist based at the Rice Research and Extension Center near Stuttgart. His research focus is in crop disease management. He plans to develop an applied research program to improve disease control for state crops. Monfort, who was raised in a small farming community in southwestern Georgia, has B.S.A. and M.S. degrees from the University of Georgia at Tifton. Prior to earning a Ph.D. in plant science from the University of Arkansas in 2005, Dr. Monfort was an extension agent in Worth County, Ga., where he developed his expertise in precision agriculture and plant disease control. He returned to Georgia to work as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Georgia in Tifton and continued to research precision agriculture in cotton production before joining the UA faculty in December. Monfort and his wife, Debby, live in Stuttgart.
Jody Lingbeck, a native of Cannon Falls, Minn., joined the department of food science faculty in November 2006. She is a research assistant professor. Lingbeck is conducting research on fermentation products of probiotic bacteria and their benefits to human health. Lingbeck previously worked at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo. where she researched protein degradation via the ubiquitin proteasome pathway. She has a B.A. degree from the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Washington University.
Aaron Patton recently joined the department of horticulture as turfgrass extension specialist. Patton is originally from Bloomington, Ind. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at Purdue University and a B.S. degree at Iowa State University. His research experience is in the area of bermudagrass and zoysiagrass establishment and the physiological aspects of zoysiagrass cold hardiness. Patton works in concert with extension, research and teaching faculty to provide leadership in development of an interdisciplinary program to support the turfgrass industry and county extension agents. He also is designing and developing innovative training programs and materials for the turfgrass and landscape industries, county extension agents, and home audiences, while interacting with industry associations. Patton lives in Fayetteville with his wife, Ella, and son.
Dirk Philipp joined the UA faculty as an assistant professor in the department of animal science. He will conduct research on forage management and utilization, and develop educational materials for producers, county agents and the general public. Philipp comes to the U of A from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, where he was a research associate. Prior to that, he provided consulting services in erosion control and watershed management to clients in Salem, Mass. He has also worked in Managua, Nicaragua, advising small-scale cocoa farmers in soil and water conservation. A native of Germany, Philipp earned a Dipl.-Ing. Agr. degree in tropical and subtropical agriculture (equivalent to M.S.) from the University of Leipzig, Germany. He has a Ph.D. in Agronomy from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. By Trina Hollman, AGCS
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