Site Archive
The College of Agriculture welcomed four new faculty members this semester.
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The Purdue Landscape Report team has received the Purdue Agriculture 2021 TEAM Award. An acronym for Together Everyone Achieves More, the college created the award in 1995 to recognize interdisciplinary team achievements of faculty and staff.
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Six student-athletes from Purdue University’s College of Agriculture earned Academic All-Big Ten recognition during the fall 2021 sports season.
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After decades in pursuit of plant cellular signaling, a researcher returns to questions raised by his early work — now equipped with advanced technology and the establishment of a $12.5 million institute.
In 1998, a Purdue University study challenged conventional thoughts about what triggered a plant’s response to infection and helped open the door to a new era of chemical signaling research. Now a scientist involved in that collaborative study hopes to answer the very questions his early research raised through a new National Science Foundation–Biological Integration Institute program.
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“I am a botanist who studies how plants respond to stressful environmental conditions,” explained Scott McAdam, assistant professor of botany and plant pathology. “The inspiration for my experiments comes from a close observation of nature, particularly while hiking.” As McAdam explained, however, the benefits of hiking are not limited to professionals. “Everyone can appreciate nature.”
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With looming threats of coffee leaf rust to farmers’ yields, Purdue University mycologist Catherine Aime is working to protect this staple of daily lives and the economies of areas throughout the world.
Aime and colleagues warned of the potential threat to the coffee industry in June. She now is part of a team supported by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) and led by the Synergistic Hawaii Agriculture Council to investigate the fungus that causes the disease and to develop tactics to counter it.
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“My community, friends and peers are the reason I am making it through graduate school,” Katherine Rivera-Zuluga said. “One hundred percent.”
Rivera-Zuluga is a Ph.D. student in botany and plant pathology. She is one of four Colombian students currently pursuing a doctorate in the plant sciences and one of many Colombian students in the college and university at large. This community of countrymen and women has been a key support system for Rivera-Zuluga and many others, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were all away from home in the middle of a pandemic where everyone is getting sick and is scared,” she continued. “It was hard and depressing, but we gathered together when we could, we tried to keep each other safe in many ways. Most of us didn’t travel home over Christmas, but we had each other.”
“Being in the heart of the Congo Basin, I came to understand forestry’s importance to us as a country and was curious to do studies in that area,” shared Blaise Jumbam, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology.
Jumbam had long been interested in biology, but family members in his hometown of Bamenda, Cameroon urged him to pursue banking. Jumbam gave finance a try, studying at the University of Dschang, but switched to botany at the University of Buea.
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Twelve student-athletes from Purdue University’s College of Agriculture were named Big Ten Distinguished Scholars for their academic excellence during the 2020-21 school year. In total, 85 Boilermakers earned the honor, setting a record for the university.
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If Mike Woodard walks into a greenhouse space and finds a researcher mixing fertilizer one batch at a time in a watering can, he will likely mention the availability of a fertilizer injector. Or if he sees someone watering by hand, he’ll offer information about an automated irrigation system.
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Three student-athletes from Purdue University’s College of Agriculture earned Academic All-Big Ten recognition during the winter sports season. They were among 68 Purdue student-athletes to earn the title across the university.
To qualify for Academic All-Big Ten honors, student-athletes must carry a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher while enrolled full-time.
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Online searches to buy succulents have steadily risen over the past five years, reaching an all-time high in 2020. Succulents like the eastern prickly pear cactus, Opuntia humifusa, are hardy enough to grow almost anywhere with dry soil, including Indiana. Their resiliency has helped their popularity bloom, but it is also why they can be a nuisance for weed management specialists like Bill Johnson, professor of botany and plant pathology.
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“2020 was a year unlike any other, with numerous challenges, opportunities and accomplishments across our college,” said Karen Plaut, the Glenn W. Sample Dean of the College of Agriculture. “Through it all we were proud to share Purdue Agriculture’s stories with the incredible community of faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors and so many other supporters.”
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Agriculture was supposed to be a quick detour for Tiffanna Ross. Just one semester while she waited for space to open in the University of Guyana’s undergraduate biology program.
“But I developed a liking for agriculture and it worked out for the best,” said Ross, now a doctoral student in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing many aspects of life on the Purdue campus to change. Faculty and graduate students are rising to the challenge, redesigning lab courses in creative and innovative ways.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing many aspects of life on the Purdue campus to change. Faculty and graduate students are rising to the challenge, redesigning lab courses in creative and innovative ways.
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