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Six student-athletes from Purdue University’s College of Agriculture have earned the Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award for the 2019-2020 academic year. Each year, the honor is given to students on varsity rosters who maintain a grade-point average of 3.7 or higher.
Among the honorees, Tessa Sheets ranked in the top 16.5% of Big Ten Distinguished Scholars by achieving a 4.0 GPA.
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The College of Agriculture accounted for more than a third of Purdue researchers who asked for access and support to continue critical research when facilities closed this spring.
With about 15 wiliwili trees in the Lilly Greenhouses, and only 150 left in the wild after an insect pest decimated its population, Purdue oversees an important concentration of this deciduous tree native to Hawaii. Scott McAdam, assistant professor of botany and plant pathology, has been growing the trees for three years.
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The College of Agriculture’s outstanding student mentors and teaching assistant have one thing in common: Each benefited from impactful mentoring along their own paths to academic and personal success.
MS student Liz Alexander and PhD student Samira Fatemi are recipients of the 2020 Pathmaker Awards, sponsored by the Purdue Agricultural Alumni Association to recognize effective mentoring of undergraduate researchers-in-training and fellow graduate students. PhD candidate Jon Knott has been named the College of Agriculture’s 2020 Outstanding Teaching Assistant. Here, each award winner shares insights into the benefits of mentoring, both to their mentees and to themselves.
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From the lab to the laptop: How College of Agriculture professors are pivoting to virtual classrooms
In many ways, attending in-person university lectures is a great equalizer, John “Barny” Dunning, Forestry and Natural Resources (FNR) professor observed.
“In the face-to-face format, I get three chances a week to remind students of critical deadlines, upcoming activities and impart crucial information. Of course, students don’t get that information if they don’t come to class, but then it is their fault,” Dunning said.
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The relationship between fungi and climate change is somewhat of a paradox, according to Cathie Aime, professor of botany and plant pathology, but that’s in keeping with these enigmatic and often misunderstood organisms.
As climate change radically alters global landscapes and ecosystems, fungi that are damaging to crops and threaten agricultural industries can become more prevalent. A recent example of this is the fungus that causes coffee rust (Hemileia vastarix), which has devastated coffee crops and the industry in Columbia and Central America and destroyed the livelihoods of millions throughout Latin America. An increase in temperatures, rainfall and extreme weather events, conditions favored by this fungus, accelerated the epidemic.
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By Chad Campbell “The hardest part for me,” said Darcy Telenko, “is being from a farm and knowing the impact. Knowing what it feels like…
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JOSH KRAFT “One of the interesting things about plants is how they deal with different stressors in their environments. They can’t just leave when things…
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By Emma Ea Ambrose Hinkypunks. Hobby lanterns. Fairy lights. Corpse candles. Fool’s fire. All of these whimsical names, which originated in Ireland, once referred to…
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By Brian Wallheimer Any trip to Mars, likely to take a year or longer, will require astronauts to grow at least some of their own…
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By Chad Campbell Ethan Smiley always looked forward to his science classes, but with a police officer for a father, a nurse for a mother…
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Gordon McNickle and Morgan Ritzi at the Ross reserve. Photo by Tom Campbell By Brian Wallheimer Gordon McNickle uses game theory to understand forest…
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About the feature Many people are involved in the remarkable range of programs, services and facilities that undergird research in the College of Agriculture. Collectively…
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