01/07/1994

AAES Names Research Award Winners

AUBURN, Ala. - Studies examining the social worlds of insects and children helped two Auburn University scientists win prestigious research awards.

Brian Vaughn, professor of Family and Child Development in Auburn's School of Human Sciences, and Jim Cane, associate professor of Entomology in the College of Agriculture, recently were named winners of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES) Director's Research Awards.

The awards are given annually to recognize outstanding research accomplishments within the AAES. The winners each received a $10,000 grant to use in their research programs.

"This year's winners of the Director's Research Award personify the creativity vital to scientific investigation and the application so vital to our clientele," noted Lowell Frobish, AAES director.

"They also embody the team concept of the Agricultural Experiment Station," he continued. "Though working in diverse subject areas, this year's winners share the common thread of diligent scientific investigation, combined with a willingness to generously share their time and technological expertise with producers, consumers, colleagues and students."

Vaughn's work focuses on Alabama's most valuable of resources--its children. Vaughn is an internationally recognized expert in the area of children's social development. His AAES research focuses on describing and supporting the physical and mental health of infants and young children in Alabama. His survey of physicians in the state, which indicated a dramatic drop in medical services in rural areas of Alabama in the next decade, has been used extensively by state and national legislators and has been cited by colleagues throughout the World.

Vaughn received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Arizona State University and earned master's and doctoral degrees in child psychology from the University of Minnesota. Following completion of his Ph.D, he held a two-year post-doctoral position at University of California-Los Angeles, working with children with handicaps. After his post-doctoral work, Vaughn was assistant, then tenured associate professor in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for the Study of Developmental Disabilities at the University of Illinois-Chicago campus. He served there from 1981, until he joined the Auburn faculty in 1988.

Vaughn recently received a $470,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to study the formation and maintenance of social structures in play-groups of young children. He has authored or co-authored more than 40 publications. He also serves on several prestigious national and international boards in the broad area of child development.

"In a state like ours, where we rank low in many education categories and high in numbers of single parent homes and low income families, his work is critical to Alabama's future," noted Frobish.

Cane's studies also focus on relationships, but of insects and plants rather than humans. He graduated summa cum laude, with a bachelor's degree in entomology from the State University of New York in 1977. In 1982, he earned the Ph.D, with honors, from the University of Kansas, also in entomology.

During his graduate studies, he was a Fulbright Fellow, a Danforth Fellow and a Fellow of Sverige-Amerika Stiftelsen. Following his doctoral work, Cane was a post-doctoral fellow of the Miller Foundation at the University of California at Berkeley. He joined Auburn's College of Agriculture faculty in 1985.

He has been described by his colleagues at Auburn as the best "pure" scientist in Auburn's Department of Entomology and was extolled by world-renowned Harvard professor, E.O. Wilson, as "one of the most promising entomologists of his generation."

Cane's research at Auburn has focused on the evolution of Ips bark beetles, which has an impact on the Alabama's vital forestry industry, and the relationship between foraging habits and pollination efficiency of bees, which affects crop production.

One example of the impact of his work is his study of a solitary, ground-nesting bee, Habropoda laboriosa. Cane showed that this bee, now commonly called the blueberry bee, is vital for proper pollination and fruit set in rabbiteye blueberries, a common variety used in the Southeast.

Cane's pioneering insect/plant research has drawn the attention of granting agencies, resulting in more than $500,000 in competitive grants. He has published more than 40 scientific papers, many in the most prestigious scientific journals.

"Cane's work is in a critical, yet often overlooked area of plant production--that being the relationship between insects and plants," said Frobish. "His pioneering scientific work with the social patterns of insects has led to many practical applications for beekeepers and fruit and forage producers."

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Auburn, AL 36849
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Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu
Contact Katie Jackson, 334-844-5886 or smithcl@auburn.edu

January 7, 1994