PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

...The College of ACES and Paul A. Funk Recognition Awards were presented at the annual banquet.  Crop Sciences had several winners.  Martin Sachs received the College of ACES 2006 Service Recognition Award; Eric Adee received the Professional Staff Award for Excellence--Sustained Excellence, Research; Kris Ritter, Staff Award for Exellence; and, Federico Trucco, Ph.D. Graduate Student Research Award.  The SoyFACE Global Change Research Team received the Team Award for Exellence.  Crop Sciences members were Elizabeth Ainsworth, Germán Bollero, Stephen Long, Timothy Mies, Randall Nelson and Donald Ort.

...The Crop Sciences Department Awards will be presented at the Spring Social on May 17..  Martin Johnson will receive the 2006 Academic Professional Award for Excellence.  Marty is a Research Specialist in Agriculture at the Northwestern Illinois Agricultural Research and Demonstration Center in Monmouth.  Donna Downen will receive the 2006 Staff Award for Excellence.

...This year’s recipients of the Alumni Awards for Graduate Student Travel are:  Heather Clodfelter, Joy Jamago and Sarah Schultz, who will participate in the annual meeting of the American Society of Agronomy; Tara Lynch, who will attend the 2006 Soybean Rust Symposium; James Craig, who will participate in the annual meeting of the Society of Nematologists; and Sushma Jossey, who will participate in the joint meeting of the American Phytopathological Society, Canadian Phytopathological Society, and the Mycological Society of America.  These travel awards are made possible by a generous donation from A. Forrest Troyer.

...Congratulations to Patricia Stoller, who was selected as Student Club Advisor of the Year from ACES for her work with the Field & Furrow Club.

The Field & Furrow Club won the ACES Undergraduate Organization of the Year Award.

...Congratulations to Germán Bollero, Brian Diers, Snook Pataky and Dean Riechers, who were elected to the Faculty Advisory Committee.

...Congratulations to the new Department Advisory Committee members:  Don Ort - 0-time representative, Jeff Coulter - graduate student representative and Andrew Bowman - undergraduate representative.

...The 4th Annual Donors Appreciation Dessert Reception to celebrate excellence and achievement was held April 18.  The undergraduate award recipients were:  Regan Joehl--Crow’s Hybrid Corn Company Scholarship; Jessica Hendrickson and Benjamin Martin-- Dr. & Mrs. M. E. Ensminger Scholarship; Heather Clodfelter, Brian Fisher, Jessica Hendrickson, Kent Leesman, Benjamin Martin and Jared Walter--Eugene C. Hoerner Scholarship; Bradley Bandy--Robert W. Howell Memorial Scholarship; Jared Walter--Illinois Seed Trade Association-Alvin L. Lang Scholarship; Nathan Karplus and Justin Martz--Dr. Malcolm H. McVickar Award in Agronomy; Regan Joehl and Kent Leesman--Illinois Forage and Grassland Council-Darrell A. Miller Scholarship; Heather Clodfelter and Matthew Murray--Ted Peck Memorial Award; Caitlin Allen, Nathan Karplus and Krista Ubbenga--Daniel E. and Joan Pfister Scholarship; Regan Joehl and Brian Fisher--Robert B. Troutman Student Leadership Award; Regan Joehl--Department of Crop Sciences Undergraduate Research Award; and, Heather Clodfelter--American Society of Agronomy Outstanding Student Recognition Award.

The graduate students honored at the reception were:  Narasimham Upadyayula--William B. and Nancy L. Ambrose Fellowship; Joy Jamago--Richard L. Bernard Soybean Improvement Award; Emily Heaton--Brockson Graduate Fellowship; Elizabeth Wrage--W. L. Burlison Memorial Award; Jonathan Nordby--Crow’s Hybrid Corn Company Graduate Scholarship; Joshua “Ian” Meyer--Darwin Traditional Corn Breeding Fellowship by A. Forrest Troyer; Matt Hunt--Charles Adlai Ewing Endowed Graduate Fellowship; Sarah Schultz and Amy Wilson--J. C. Hackleman Illinois Crop Improvement Association Graduate Fellowship; Allen Becker--Richard H. & Elizabeth C. Hageman Endowed Graduate Research Fellowship; Fernando Miguez--Floyd S. Ingersoll Graduate Research Fellowship; Jeffrey Coulter--Kraft/Frerichs Graduate Fellowship; Sofia da Silva--Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. Plant Breeding Graduate Fellowship; Ines Daverede and Sushma Jossey--M. B. Russell Memorial Award; Jeremy Lake--Fred W. Slife Graduate Fellowship; Robyn (Allscheid) Stevens, Caroly Bonin and Sarah I. Jones--Jonathan Baldwin Turner Graduate Fellowships; Andrea Collett and Nicolas Martin--University of Illinois Fellowship; Joy Jamago--Fulbright Fellowship; Jeffrey Church, Lindsay Freeberg and Elizabeth Wrage--Agricultural Genome Sciences and Public Policy Fellowship; and,  Tung Anh Pham--Viet Nam Educational Fellowship.

Dr. Jerald (Snook) Pataky received the 2006 Wyffels Hybrids Award for Faculty Excellence.

...Congratulations to Dustin Alderks, Darren Bakken, Joshua Meyer and Yan Zhang on the completion of their masters degrees.  Dustin worked under the direction of Emerson Nafziger and is now a Prefoundation Assistant in Corn Production at Monsanto.  Darren was advised by Mike Gray and Kevin Steffey and is now a Product Evaluation Specialist at Golden Harvest.  Joshua worked with Stephen Moose and is now a Research Associate, Line Development Breeding at Monsanto.  Yan worked with Ben Tracy and is still looking for a job.

...The Field and Furrow Club Awards were announced at the annual banquet held April 27th.  The recipients were:  Speech Contest--Brian Fisher (1st) and Craig Sondgeroth (2nd); Crops/IPM Contest--Mike Meyer (1st), Regan Joehl/Andrew Bowman, and Jared Walter (3rd); Service Awards--Sean Breen, Nathan Karplus and Kate Legge; Outstanding Senior Award--T. J. Ruyle; Outstanding Junior Award--Regan Joehl and Jared Walter; Outstanding New Member--Caitlen Allen, Sydney Jarrett and Andy Morehouse; Outstanding Faculty/Staff Award--Dr. Don White; and, SAS/ASA Outstanding Senior--Heather Clodfelter.

...Congratulations to the Crop Sciences Student Ambassadors, who were winners at ExplorAces.  They won a total of $200 for the exhibits  “Will You Try Crop Sci?”, “Creature Features” and “CSI--Crop Sciences Inquiry”.  Good job!

FUNDING RECEIVED

...C-FAR awarded Mohammad Babadoost and Rick Weinzierl $14,700 each for the joint project “Initiative for Low-Input Apple Production in Illinois”.  Mike Gray received $32,000 from the Integrated Pest Management Grants Program for the  NC IPM Program.  USDA/CSREES awarded Kris Lambert $611,842 for “Whole Genome Analysis of the Soybean Cyst Nematode”.  Lila Vodkin and Jack Widholm each received $150,000 for the project “Soybean Improvement by Insertion of Multiple Genes” from the Illinois Soybean Program Operating Board.

...The Provost’s Initiative on Teaching Advancement has awarded Darin Eastburn and Cleo D’Arcy $9,550 for their project “Redesigning Learning Objectives for the Use of Web-based Learning Modules in Plant, Pathogens, and People (PLPA 200).

DATES TO REMEMBER

May 14, UI Commencement.  ACES Student Convocation – Undergraduate, 9:30 a.m., KCPA Great Hall  – Graduate, 10:00 a.m. Smith Music Hall

May 17, Crop Sciences Spring Social Cookout at the South Farm, 4:30 - 7:30

UPCOMING CONFERENCES, SYMPOSIA & WORKSHOPS

...The North Central Divisional Meeting of the American Phytopathological Society will be held in Fargo, ND, June 13-15, 2006.

...SDE/GWIS Beta chapter is pleased to announce that the 85th Annual SDE/GWIS National Meeting will be held June 8-11, 2006 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Pyle Center in Madison, WI. The theme of the conference is “Moving Forward: Climate, Cognition and Careers for Women in Science and Engineering”.

PERSONALS

...To the staff and faculty in Crop Sciences:  Your notes, cards, and e-mails of sympathy helped me accept my mother’s death more courageously.  Thank you for your thoughtfulness.  Ted Hymowitz