Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology (AGEC)
John Adrian, Chair
334-844-4800
www.ag.auburn.edu/agec
Faculty Receive Recognition
AEC Professor Conner Bailey is one of three Auburn faculty members (including two from fisheries and allied aquacultures) featured in a documentary on aquaculture to be aired nationally on PBS Nov. 18. The documentary, "Farming the Seas," is a sequel to PBS' "Empty Oceans, Empty Nets" and has been awarded a CINE Golden Eagle. It will be the first documentary to reach a national audience about the problems and potential of aquaculture.
Professor Henry Kinnucan has been named to a three-year term as editor of the Southern Agricultural Economics Association's Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics. Kinnucan also traveled to Taipei, Taiwan, recently to present a paper on U.S. agricultural supply chains at the Asian Productivity Organization's recent annual meeting and presented an invited seminar at the National Taiwan Ocean University's Institute for Applied Economics on the impact of increased Chilean salmon supplies on price and welfare.
J. Walter Prevatt was recently recognized at the annual American Agricultural Economics Association meeting. He received the Extension Outlook: Premier Forecaster Award, which recognizes superior forecasting of livestock production and prices for 2003-04.
Henry Thompson, AEC professor, spent six weeks during the summer of 2004 on a Fulbright Senior Specialist grant in economics as a member of the economics faculty at the University of Zageb's Graduate School of Economics and Business in Croatia. While there, he presented lectures on international economics and microeconomics and seminars on his research. The research he started with the faculty in Croatia will result in a publication aimed at policy makers.
The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) has presented its prestigious John Helmut Award to C. Robert Taylor, AEC professor and the Alfa eminent scholar in agricultural and public policy. The honor came in recognition of Taylor's appearance as an expert witness earlier this year in the federal antitrust lawsuit Picket v. Tyson Fresh Meats.
Biosystems Engineering (BSEN)
Steve Taylor, Head
334-844-4180
www.eng.auburn.edu/programs/bsen
New Blood in Biosystems Engineering
Department head Steve Taylor, left, with new BIO faculty Mark Dougherty,Yifen Wang (seated), John Fulton and Puneet Srivastava.
Mark Dougherty, Puneet Srivastava and Yifen Wang joined the BIO faculty in August.
Dougherty, assistant professor of land and water resources engineering, comes from Virginia Tech, where he recently completed his Ph.D. in civil engineering. He has bachelor's degrees in geography and agricultural engineering from Clarion University and Texas Tech University, respectively, and a master's in biological systems engineering from Virginia Tech. He has several years of experience in Extension and with engineering consulting firms.
Srivastava, assistant professor forest engineering, comes to Auburn from the Patrick Center for Environmental Research in Philadelphia, Penn. He has also worked for the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. He received his Ph.D. in biosystems engineering at Penn State University, his master's in the same from the University of Arkansas and a bachelor's in agricultural engineering from the University of Allahabad in India.
Wang, assistant professor of food and bioprocess engineering, comes from Washing-ton State University, where he received his Ph.D. in food engineering and later served as a post-doctoral research associate. Prior to his Ph.D. work, he received a bachelor's in food engineering from the Shanghai Fisheries University, a master's in environmental engineering from the University of Washington and an M.B.A. from Washing-ton State University. He has worked in the seafood processing industry and in the Chinese Academy of Fisheries Science.
Mark Dougherty, Puneet Srivastava and Yifen Wang join John Fulton, assistant professor of machine systems engineering, who began work in January of this year, working in precision agriculture, precision forestry and alternative energy.
BIO Students and Faculty Making News
Kyung Yoo was invited by the Rural Development Administration of Korea to present a paper at the International Symposium on Nonpoint Source Pollution in Daejon, Korea in September.
Several AU biosystems engineering faculty and graduate students presented papers at the 2004 International Meeting of ASAE held in August in Ottawa, Canada, including faculty members Oladiran Fasina, John Fulton, Puneet Srivastava and Tim McDonald and graduate students Layne Owen, Jon Davis and Christian Brodbeck.
At the recent International Meeting of ASAE, the society for engineering in agricultural, food, and biological systems, several BIO faculty members completed or assumed new leadership duties. Department Head Steve Taylor completed terms as chair of the structural engineering group and chair of the society's paper awards committee. Taylor continues to serve as chair of the forest engineering group. Srivastava was elected as secretary of the hydrology group, and Fasina was elected vice chair of the committee on physical properties of agricultural materials.
Sarah Sanders, a senior in BIO from Brundidge, spent five weeks over the summer as an intern in Con-gressman Terry Everett's office in Washington, D.C. As an intern, she attended committee meetings and briefings related to agricultural issues, attended House and Senate sessions during discussions of pending legislation, helped write letters to constituents along with many other administrative tasks and gave tours of the Capitol building.
Don't forget our alumni tailgating event before the Kentucky football game. Join us two hours before the game at Ag Heritage Park on Oct. 23. For more information, contact Steve Taylor (334-844-4180).
Horticulture (HORT)
Charles Gilliam, Chair
334-844-4862
www.ag.auburn.edu/hort
A Big Hort Welcome
Aubie the AU mascot attempts to spoonfeed a forkful of potato salad to Chris Szymberski, a horticulture major at Auburn, as hort professor Harry Ponder and others look on during the Department of Horticulture's annual Hort Welcome Day in October.
The department sponsors the event every fall to officially meet and greet all horticulture undergraduate and graduate students and their families, and to give faculty and students the opportunity to interact. Incidentally, shortly after the picture was snapped, Aubie inadvertently unloaded the mound of salad onto Szymberski's shirt, then stole away to grace others with his presence.
Fall Landscape School Offered
The second annual Fall Landscape School will be held Nov. 4-5 at The Hotel and Dixon Con-ference Center in Auburn.
The Landscape School is sponsored by Department of Horticul-ture in cooperation with the Alabama Nursery and Landscape Association, the Alabama Co-operative Extension System and the USDA Risk Management Agency.
This year's program offers a diverse array of experts from academia and the green industry. Topics will include plants and design, business, a practicum section, a build-a-pond workshop, pest management and a variety of other issues.
Cost is $140, which includes all lectures and workshops (with the exception of the Build-A-Pond, which has its own fee schedule), lunch on Thursday and break refreshments.
For details contact Dave Williams at 334-844-3032.
Entomology and Plant Pathology (ENTM)
Mike Williams, Chair
334-844-5006
www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl
ENTM Updates
ENTM 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.
Linnaean Team: Professor Kira Bowen, center, with particpants in a short course in Chiapas, Mexico.
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 ENTM 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 ENTM 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, ENTM master’s student Nathan Burkett took second place in Session 3 Science Oral Presentations, and ENTM 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
Macklin to Serve as Interim Poultry Health Specialist
Ken Macklin, research fellow at Auburn, has accepted a 12-month Alabama Co-operative Extension System assignment as interim poultry health specialist in the department. He follows long-time CoAg poultry health specialist Mike Eckman, who retired from his Extension duties in the department in December 2003. A search for a permanent replacement for Eckman is in progress.
In his new role, Macklin's primary responsibility will be to help protect the health status of poultry flocks throughout the state. He will be developing and delivering educational programs to all responsible parties; consulting in the areas of biosecurity, disease diagnosis, disease surveillance, feed additive selection, quality control measures, immunization, integrated health management and microbiological monitoring; and presenting information dealing with infectious disease surveillance, etiology, epidemiology and control.
Lien Top Teacher
Roger J. Lien, PH associate professor, has been named the nation's top university poultry science teacher by the Poultry Science Association (PSA). He was presented the 2004 Land O'Lakes/Purina Teaching Award during the PSA's annual convention in St. Louis, Mo.
The sponsors present the award and its $1,500 cash prize annually to the PSA member who has demonstrated outstanding success as an instructor over a period of years.
In addition to teaching three undergraduate PH courses, Lien serves as undergraduate program coordinator, a role in which he directs student advising and recruiting and is responsible for updating and improving the department curriculum to best meet students' and employers' needs.
The national teaching award comes on the heels of Lien's reception of the 2004 Auburn University Alumni Association Teaching Excellence Award earlier this year and, in 2003, of the AU College of Agriculture Dean's Award for Advising Excellence.
Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture (FISH)
David Rouse, Interim Head
334-844-4786
www.ag.auburn.edu/dept/faa/
East Alabama Agriculture and Industries Tour
Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers led his 2004 East Alabama Agriculture and Industries Tour in August. Among the sites they visited were the Auburn University Fisheries Research Station where they were able to see electro fishing equipment at work.
FAA Faculty Making Waves
Bryan Duncan, FAA professor and director of AU's International Center for Aquaculture and Aquatic Environments, and Alabama Water Watch director Bill Deutsch traveled to the Philippines in September to participate in a workshop on integrated water and fisheries resources management.
Duncan and Claude Boyd, FAA professor and Butler-Cunningham Professor for Agriculture and the Enviroment, were among three CoAg faculty members featured in a documentary on aquaculture to be aired nationally on Nov 18. The documentary, "Farming the Seas," is a sequel to PBS' "Empty Oceans, Empty Nets."
Michael Maceina, FAA professor, and FAA graduate student Ben Ricks collaborated with scientists from Manaus, Brazil, when they went on a fish sampling trip to Brazil's Rio Negro River. The project involved implementing and tracking radio tags on fish.
Animal Sciences
Lowell Frobish, Chair
334-844-4160
www.ag.auburn.edu/ansc
Faculty and Graduate Students Present at Meetings, Receive Grants
Bethany D. Crean, a graduate student pursuing a master's degree with AS Professor Frank F. Bartol, received a travel award from the British Columbia Research Institute for Children's and Women's Health to attend the 37th annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction (SSR) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, in August. Crean presented a report of her work in the area of porcine neonatal estrogen exposure and its impact on uterine health in adulthood.
Bartol presented an invited lecture in the general session of the Annual Conference and Symposium of the Society for Theriogenology/ American College of Theriogenology, an international meeting of veterinary specialists in reproductive medicine, in Lexington, Ky., in August.
Bartol and Robert L. Judd, associate professor of pharmacology in the College of Veterinary Medicine and an AAES resear-cher and director of AU's Boshell Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases Research Program, have received a grant from the Diabetes Trust Foundation to support development of a porcine model for fetal programming of Type II diabetes.
Several AS faculty and graduate students presented papers at the combined national American Society of Animal Science/ American Dairy Science Association/ Poultry Science Association meetings in St Louis, Mo., recently. Dana Dodson and Trina Kittendorf, who recently finished their master's degree programs with AS Professor Russ Muntifering and are now in veterinary school, and AS Research Associate John Lin attended the meetings and presented the papers, which were co-authored by Muntifering and two German and Spanish collaborators. Other AS faculty attending the meeting included Keith Cummins, Darrell Rankins, Steve Schmidt, Lee Chiba and Dale Coleman.
Coleman was elected secretary/treasurer of the Southern Section of the American Society of Animal Science and is scheduled to become president in 2007. He also just began a three-year term as a National ASAS Director representing the Southern Section.
Muntifering has been invited to contribute to a special edition of an international journal on air pollution effects on agriculture and agroecosystems.