Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology (AGEC)
John Adrian, Chair
334-844-4800
www.ag.auburn.edu/agec
Henry Thompson, AEC professor, has been awarded a Fulbright Senior Specialists grant in Economics at the University of Zagreb in Croatia. The Fulbright program offers two- to six-week grants to leading U.S. academics and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at colleges and universities in 140 countries. Thompson will present lectures on topics of international economics and microeconomics and a research seminar, and will travel to present seminars at another university in Croatia as well as one in Slovenia. He also will collaborate with colleagues at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece and the Athens University of Economics and Business. Thompson also plans to finish work on the new edition of his textbook in international economics.
Thompson, who teaches international economics, mathematical economics and resource and energy economics in the College of Agriculture, has a Ph.D. from the University of Houston in International Trade and Energy Economics. He has been at AU since 1987. Although he is based in the College of Agriculture, Thompson's grant assigned him to the economics faculty at the University of Zagreb's Graduate School of Economics and Business.
AEC Professor Joe Molnar has received a $50,000 SARE grant dealing with adoption of sustainable practices among farmers in the southern region.
Professor Bob Goodman received a SARE grant to analyze economic impacts of crop rotations on nematode populations with Austin Hagan.
Assistant Professor Diane Hite has been appointed to the Editorial Council of The Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
Norbert Wilson was recently approved for Level II Graduate Faculty status.
AEC Professor Walt Prevatt just returned from a tour of Brazil and Argentina.
Biosystems Engineering (BSEN)
Steve Taylor, Head
334-844-4180
www.eng.auburn.edu/programs/bsen
Exciting research is under way on precision agriculture and precision forestry. A new project was initiated during the fall of 2003 at the Tennessee Valley Research and Extension Center to examine the combined benefits of precision agriculture techniques and subsurface drip irrigation systems. Researchers involved in the project are BIO Assistant Professor Jim Baier and Professor Larry Curtis; Randy Raper of the USDA Soil Dynamics Lab; and Joey Shaw, Charles Burmester and Paul Mask of Department of Agronomy and Soils.
BIO Assistant Professor John Fulton is starting a new project to examine the techniques and benefits of variable rate applications of nitrogen on corn and wheat. Cooperators on this variable rate nitrogen project include Shaw and Burmester and Shannon Norwood from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. They will be testing a variable rate applicator with input from the "GreenSeeker," which is a real-time sensor that detects variations in nitrogen levels.
BIO Associate Professor Tim McDonald, BIO Professor and Head Steve Taylor, and Fulton are working on adapting many of the techniques developed in precision agriculture to what is becoming precision forestry. Projects currently under way include developing new sensors and systems that can be installed on forest harvesting machines to develop geospatial maps of forest growth and yield.
BIO and the USDA National Soil Dynamics Lab are hosting two visiting scientists this spring. Charles Duruoha, who is conducting research on management and alleviation of soil compaction, will be here for several months. Duruoha is originally from Nigeria but comes to Auburn by way of Brazil. Jeff Tullberg, who hails from the University of Queensland in Australia, is sharing the results of his research on controlled traffic farming and precision agriculture. Tullberg visited the Soil Dynamics Lab during March.
High School students visit the BIO exhibit at the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering's annual E-Day recruiting event.
Students and faculty from BIO recently participated in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering's annual E-Day recruiting event at Foy Student Union. This is the largest single engineering recruiting event in the state of Alabama. Hundreds of junior high and high school students visited the BIO exhibits.
BIO students also showed off their quarter-scale pulling team tractor alongside a new Agco Challenger tractor Yancy Agricultural Products of Albany, Ga., gererously provided a tractor for the event. This rubber-tracked was a real croud pleaser and encouraged many potential students to stop by and talk about BIO programs.
Students in BIO Assistant Professor Diran Fasina's thermal process engineering course recently visited the international poultry expo in Atlanta.
Professor Kyung Yoo and students in his land and water conservation engineering course attended the WaterQuest and Nonpoint Source Watershed Forum meeting in Birmingham.
ASAE members serviced 142 lawnmowers during the one-day Annual Spring Lawnmover Clinic.
The American Society of Agricultural Engineering (ASAE) student branch quarter-scale tractor pulling team, dubbed the "War Eagle Pullers," is working hard on its entry in the 2004 international quarter-scale tractor design competition. This competition is sponsored by ASAE, the society for engineering in agricultural, food, forest and biological systems. Students design and build a quarter-scale tractor, present their design to industry judges and then compete in a tractor pull competition. This year's team received grants from the AU Concessions Board and from the College of Engineering to purchase tools and equipment to help fabricate their tractor. To help sponsor this team, please contact ASAE Student Branch Advisor Tim McDonald at 334-844-3545.
Student and faculty members of ASAE conducted their annual spring lawnmower clinic in March at the Tom Corley Building. Students serviced a record 142 lawnmowers during the one-day event. Their service includes changing the oil, sharpening the blade, cleaning the air filter, cleaning the spark plug and washing the mower. A dedicated group of 20 students and five faculty members worked hard on the project, which generated funds to be used for the quarter-scale tractor team and for travel to regional and national ASAE student events.
BIO's geospatial technology (GPS and GIS) course continues to be a popular course across campus. This spring 21 students from majors such as forestry, civil engineering, fisheries and BIO were enrolled in the class. This course, which was developed by Baier and Taylor, is the only course on campus that lets students learn how to use GPS for mapping and surveying and then use those data in geographic information systems. Baier is currently teaching the course.
Students in the geospatial course and in other BIO courses are enjoying new computing equipment this spring. Last fall, the AU provost's office awarded a grant to BIO for upgrading computing equipment and for distance learning equipment. With these funds, BIO has created a new 20-seat teaching computing lab in what was the old senior design room. It is considered "temporary" because heating and air conditioning, electrical, data and other utilities need to be upgraded. BIO is soliciting help from alumni and friends to make these upgrades and, ultimately, provide a first-class GIS/CAD computing facility.
BIO selected Buddy Cox, a 1979 AU agricultural engineering graduate, as its Outstanding Alumnus for 2004. Cox was honored at the Ginn College of Engineering Honors Reception in March. He is chief geotechnical engineer and environmental compliance engineer for the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT). He began his career with the Alabama Department of Public Health and served in the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) as the head of the Hazardous Waste Branch of ADEM's Land Division. Within ALDOT, he served as head of the Hazardous Materials Program before becoming the state geotechnical engineer
Sara Johnson also was recognized at the Honors Reception as the Outstanding Biosystems Engineering Student. Johnson is a BIO senior from Watkinsville, Ga. In addition to having an exceptional academic record, she was awarded a Birdsong Fellowship from the College of Engineering in 2002. Through this fellowship, Johnson spent a year in Morocco learning about engineering and the Moroccan culture. Her career interests lie primarily in ecological and environmental engineering.
Two BIO faculty members received significant recognition from their peers and from their students. Professor Clifford Flood, who retired last year after 32 years of service to Auburn, was named the Outstanding Faculty Member for 2004 by the students in BIO. Flood also received the Engineering Student Council's Outstanding Faculty Member in the College of Engineering award. BIO Professor Larry Curtis also was honored. The Alabama Section of ASAE presented Curtis its Distinguished Engineer award in March.
Horticulture (HORT)
Charles Gilliam, Chair
334-844-4862
www.ag.auburn.edu/hort
New Faculty Member
HF Professor Wheeler Foshee
HF welcomes Wheeler Foshee to the faculty. Foshee joined the faculty in fall 2004, transferring from the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology where he served as an Extension pesticide specialist. Before coming to HF, Foshee conducted fruit and vegetable IPM research and taught a class entitled Insecticides in the Environment. Foshee's new position focuses on vegetable crop production research and instruction. He will teach Sustainable Vegetable Crop Production and another course yet to be decided.
ALCA Builds Greenhouses
ALCA members gave out trees for Arbor Day.
HF's student chapter of Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA) recently worked on the beginning stages for construction of two 18x14-foot greenhouses at Auburn Junior High School. This project is a result of the combined efforts of math teacher Cynda Fickert and HF professor and ALCA sponsor Joe Eakes.
Fickert believes in exposing her students to math in innovative ways. Her latest idea was for her students to grow plant material, take and record measurements of the plant's growth and then compare different treatments using various statistical procedures. She received a Toyota-sponsored grant that provides the money to build two greenhouses in which her students could grow the plant material necessary for their experiments. Fickert asked Eakes, whose son had previously been in her class, if he would assist in preparing the grant.
The four cornerstones of ALCA are professional, social and community development and fundraising. ALCA students flexed their professional muscle in March while participating in the ALCA Student Career Days. This is a national competition that HF students attend annually. The three-day event was held in Columbus, Ohio. HF students competed against students enrolled in horticulture and landscape contracting programs from colleges and universities across the country in several different categories directly related to skills necessary in the horticulture industry. The event offered the opportunity for students to meet prospective employers in the industry to discuss both internship and full-time positions.
Accepting Applications for European Gardens Tour
The HF department is currently accepting applications for participation in an eight to 10-day excursion to Europe. This learning opportunity, provided by the Henry P. Orr Endowment, will send two to three students and one faculty member to tour public and private gardens of London, Southern England and Paris.The trip will occur in late May. Watch for a detailed synopsis of our students' unique learning experience in the next issue of Ag Illustrated.
Orr was a distinguished professor and mentor who believed in supplementing students' classroom education with experience in the horticulture industry. This endowment fund was established to support undergraduate horticulture education beyond the classroom. Contact the department if you are interested in contributing to the endowment fund.
Other Horticulture Updates
HF hosts two receptions annually that provide a chance for fellowship among alumni, faculty, staff and current students. The most recent event was held in Mobile at the Gulf States Horticultural Expo during January. Highlights of the gathering included a top 10 list of horticulture highlights and an open forum on where our graduates are now. The next reception will be held in August at the Southern Nurserymens' Association Trade Show in Atlanta, Ga.
HF Professor Dave Williams participated in the USDA ESCOP/ACOP Leadership Development Program.
Mark your calendars for two big fall events: the Second Annual Henry P. Orr Golf Classic, to be held Oct. 22, and the AU Fall Landscape School, to be held Nov. 4-5. Look for more details on these events in future issues of Ag Illustrated.
HF alumnus Bryson James was inducted into the AU Ag Alumni Association's Hall of Honor. For more details see the story on page 14 of this issue of Ag Illustrated.
Agronomy and Soils (AGRN)
Joe Touchton, Head
334-844-4100
www.ag.auburn.edu/agrn
Winner at Graduate Research Forum
AY graduate student Rasanthi Wijesinghe recently won third place in the 14th annual Graduate Research Forum's Session C Poster Presentations. The forum is a multidisciplinary exhibition of student research sponsored by AU's Graduate Student Council that allows graduate, professional and undergraduate students an opportunity to present their research in a public setting.
Entomology and Plant Pathology (ENTM)
Mike Williams, Chair
334-844-5006
www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl
ENTM Updates
Linnaean Team-(left to right) Jason Forster (captain), Nathan Burkett, Whitney Qualls, Elly Maxwell and Laura Cooper (alternate) will compete at the national competition in Salt Lake City, Utah, in November 2004.
ENTPLP was well represented at the 2004 Annual Meetings of the Southeastern Branch of the Entomological Society of America, held in Charleston, S.C., in February. Several departmental faculty and students won awards at the meeting.
The department's Linnaean Team was runner-up champions in the Linnaean Game Competition at the annual meeting and will represent the Southeastern Region, along with the team from Clemson University, at the national competition in Salt Lake City, Utah, in November 2004. Auburn's team, coached by ENTPLP Professor Gary Mullen, is composed entirely of master's degree students. Members are Nathan Burkett, Jason Forster, Whitney Qualls, Elly Maxwell and Laura Cooper. Auburn defeated teams from the University of Florida and North Carolina State University before losing out to Clemson in the championship round.
In other annual meeting competitions, master's student Nathan Burkett placed second in the Photo Salon, and graduate student Huqi Liu placed first in the Poster Presentation Competition.
Mullen also was installed as the incoming president of the Society, replacing ENTPLP Department Chair Michael Williams, who presided over the 2004 meetings. This is the first time in the history of the society that back-to-back presidents of the Entomological Society were elected from the same university.
Recent promotions in the department include Kathy Lawrence, who was promoted to associate professor with tenure; Bill Moar, who was promoted to professor; and John Murphy, who also was promoted to professor.
In this year's AU Graduate Student Research Forum, ENTPLP master's student Nathan Burkett took second place in Session 3 Science Oral Presentations, and ENTPLP Ph.D. student Qiang Xu placed first in Session A Poster Presentations.
Poultry Science (POUL)
Don Conner, Head
334-844-4133
www.ag.auburn.edu/poul
Poultry Science Updates
Teaching Excellence award winner Roger Lien, center, with John Heilman, left, senior presidential advisor, and Owen Brown, president of AU Alumni Association
Two PH graduate students were winners in the AU Graduate Student Council 14th Annual Graduate Research Forum competition held in Auburn in March. Nancy Joseph won first place in the competition's Science Oral Presentations section and Brigid McCrea won first place in the Session B Poster Presentations. The forum provides graduate, professional and undergraduate students an opportunity to present their research in a public setting.
PH Professor and Undergraduate Program Coordinator Roger Lien received one of two Teaching Excellence awards presented by the Auburn Alumni Association this year. Since Lien came to Auburn in 1989 and assumed primary responsibility for the teaching program, PH's undergraduate enrollment has doubled. Lien coordinates PH's recruiting, advising, teaching and extracurricular activities, and assists with scholarship and internship programs. He has been instrumental in initiating, funding and conducting the statewide high school FFA Poultry Career Development Event program through which many PH students have come to Auburn. He also developed PH's Teacher-Counselor Education Program and Poultry Industry Shortcourse series. These summer workshops introduce high school and junior college counselors and science and agribusiness teachers to the educational opportunities in poultry science and career opportunities associated with the poultry industry that are available to their students. As advisor to the student Poultry Science Club he has guided the club in arranging industry and alumni speakers at all biweekly club meetings and organizing popular smoked bird sales, which fund all club activities including their trip to the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association's International Poultry exposition and the renovation and maintenance of a demonstration poultry house at the Alabama Sheriffs Girl’s Ranch in Tallapoosa County.
Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture (FISH)
David Rouse, Interim Head
334-844-4786
www.ag.auburn.edu/dept/faa/
Fisheries Updates
Several years ago, Alabama catfish producers came to FAA Extension Aquaculturist Gregory N. Whitis looking for help. They needed to find farm workers who were responsible, dependable and had an interest in fish culture. Recirculating aquaculture systems were popular teaching tools in high schools, and two systems were acquired for the Marengo and Hale county school districts through a grant from the State Catfish Committee, a commodity group of the Alabama Farmers Federation. These systems, albeit small–only 1,000 gallons in size–were used for two years and were successful in teaching aquaculture principles in an agriscience curriculum. (One graduate, Ryan Clary, went on to become an FAA student.)
About two years ago, Whitis heard about a commercial-scale aquaponics system that profitably markets lettuce and tilapia, and he recognized that this system had potential as a teaching tool for west Alabama. Whitis worked with Frank Stegall, superintendent of the Hale County School District, to build a state-of-the-art aquaponics facility at Hale County's vocational school, which was funded through a $50,000 vocational grant. Whitis and aquascience teacher Kristie Howell arranged the construction of a 100-foot-long greenhouse and functioning aquaponics system, stocked with fish and plants. FAA staff members Len Vining and Jesse Chappell assisted in the planning and construction of the facility. By late fall 2003, the 10,000-gallon system was up and running, stocked with koi, tilapia, tomatoes, basil, squash, mint, bibb and romaine lettuce. Whitis continues to offer technical assistance to the program.
FAA Professor Mike Maceina recently was asked to serve on the Alabama Aquatic Resource Committee, which will serve as an advisory committee to the commissioner of conservation and the Conservation Advisory Board.
FAA Professor Rex Dunham just published Aquaculture and Fisheries Biotechnology, Genetic Approaches, which provides an accessible overview of fish genetics advancements. The book addresses such issues as polyploidy, sex-reversal and breeding, gene mapping and commercial applications.
Two FAA students, Chris Miller and Laban Lindley, recently received student awards at the annual meeting of the World Aquaculture Society.
An Alabama Water Watch program under way in the Philippines has been highlighted in the United Nation's Department of Economic and Social Affairs success story Web site. The project, entitled "Catalysing Community Participation: Water Quality Monitoring Programme in the Philippines," was conducted in Lantapan, Bukidnon, Mindanao, the Philippines, and was a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collabor-ative Research Support Program (SANREM/CRSP) project that involved Auburn University, Heifer Project International, Central Mindanao University and the Municipal Government of Lantapan, Tigbantay Wahig.
It involved freshwater management, technology transfer, awareness raising and capacity building around water quality. Details of the project and the success story highlight can be found at www.un.org/esa/sustdev/mgroups/success/phil_pro.htm. The USAID is writing up other aspects of this project and the SANREM CRSP program in an upcoming publication.
FAA Professor Bill Deutsch, who heads Alabama Water Watch, recently submitted a chapter, co-authored by Jim Orprecio of Heifer International, entitled "Community-based Water Monitoring in the Philippines and Beyond: A Decade of Investment and Potential," to be published in the SANREM/ Southeast Asia sponsored book entitled, Land Use Changes in Tropical Watersheds: Causes, Consequences, and Policy Options.