Purdue Agriculture
Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Awareness Week offers opportunities to focus on economic justice
Friday, January 17th, 2020
By Chad Campbell “We did a community health assessment recently and it’s surprising. It’s scary,” said Dr. Virginia Caine, director of the Marion County Public Health Department and Indiana University Bicentennial Professor. “Poverty and food insecurity is our second-largest issue.” Caine also noted that one-in-five Lafayette children live in poverty, higher than the state average….
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Graduate Ag Research Spotlight: Omar Zayed
Friday, January 17th, 2020
OMAR ZAYED “Understanding plant tolerance mechanisms to overcome abiotic stress — and providing a new technique to help plants to be more resistant to salinity — could be the only future solution to secure food for the world.” — Omar Zayed, PhD candidate, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture THE STUDENT Residents of Omar Zayed’s hometown…
Read More Graduate Ag Research Spotlight: Jing Huang
Monday, January 6th, 2020
JING HUANG “Accurately collecting plant vasculature is very challenging. We are establishing plantains as a model species to study vasculature-specific physiology and responses due to the ease of vascular tissue collection in this plant.” — Jing Huang, PhD student, Department of Agronomy THE STUDENT Jing Huang’s career path was influenced by where she grew…
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Purdue program changes the drift of communication
Wednesday, December 18th, 2019
By Brian Wallheimer A dozen years ago, Steve Smith could anticipate the calls coming in from farmers across the state. They’d report when and how much of their crops had been damaged as glyphosate being sprayed on nearby fields caught the wind and landed on their non-resistant tomatoes. “We were having tremendous annual drift episodes,…
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Graduate Ag Research Spotlight: Jonathan Knott
Monday, December 16th, 2019
JONATHAN KNOTT “In understanding how human-related impacts are changing the world, I’m working toward helping future generations.” — Jonathan Knott, PhD candidate, Forestry and Natural Resources THE STUDENT Jon Knott says that while growing up in Holland, Michigan, he was a “go-out-and-explore” kind of kid. He credits his love of the outdoors to hunting…
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Agricultural economics senior finds solutions while crossing borders
Wednesday, December 4th, 2019
By Emma Ea Ambrose “I really gained a deeper appreciation for agriculture and the fact that it’s not just about the exchange of food, it’s also about the exchange of ideas,” Zebediah Davis, a senior in agricultural economics, said, describing his experience at the Youth Ag Summit in Brasilia, Brazil. Davis recently returned from the…
Read More Graduate Ag Research Spotlight: Derico Setyabrata
Monday, December 2nd, 2019
DERICO SETYABRATA “I personally enjoy food — cooking and eating. Sometimes the dry-aging process can really improve the products. It’s interesting for me to figure out those flavors.” — Derico Setyabrata, PhD student, Animal Science THE STUDENT When Derico Setyabrata bites into a flavorful steak, he can’t help but wonder why it tastes so…
Read More Graduate Ag Research Spotlight: Shelby Gruss
Friday, November 22nd, 2019
SHELBY GRUSS “High-throughput phenotyping is a huge field with new opportunities, and just to be part of it is exciting. You get to see new things and do things that people haven’t done before and that could help someone in the future.” — Shelby Gruss, PhD student, Agronomy THE STUDENT Self-described “science person” Shelby…
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Long-term study will offer more data on cover crop benefits
Monday, November 18th, 2019
By Brian Wallheimer The popularity of cover crops has reemerged in recent years with farmers looking to a variety of grasses, brassicas and legumes to improve soil health. Cover crops can also improve water holding capacity, reduce erosion and weed pressure, reduce nitrogen leaching, increase soil organic matter, and potentially decrease nitrogen fertilizer application rates…
Read More Graduate Ag Research Spotlight: Josh Kraft
Wednesday, November 13th, 2019
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 get uncomfortable.” — Joshua Kraft, PhD student, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology THE STUDENT After graduating from high school in his hometown of West Lafayette, Josh Kraft went…
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Junior Olivia West energized and empowered by Forbes summit
Thursday, November 7th, 2019
By Emma Ea Ambrose Do you have a cup of coffee ready? Good, you’re going to need it after just a glimpse at junior Olivia West’s schedule. Actually, agricultural economics major West said she feels invigorated rather than worn out by her full schedule. In addition to excelling in the classroom, West is a member…
Read MoreD.C. event to focus on how science-based agriculture can feed a growing global population
Tuesday, November 5th, 2019 • University News Story
A Nov. 13 event in Washington, D.C., will bring together U.S. and Brazilian experts to share challenges, success stories and innovations that hold the promise for how agriculture can address the global food needs of a rapidly growing population.
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How the food science Pilot Plant helps drive Indiana’s economy
Tuesday, October 29th, 2019
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Indiana is one of the country’s top pumpkin growers. Also, another name for Jack o’ Lantern is Hinkypunk.
Friday, October 25th, 2019
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 the other-worldly lights of evil spirits that would appear in the night above bogs and swamplands. Centuries before science would explain away these ethereal flares as the ignition of decomposing…
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Purdue scientist sending tomatoes into space to study plant defense
Wednesday, October 16th, 2019
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 food along the way since it can cost $10,000 to send a pound of anything just as far as Earth’s orbit. Astronauts will need the nutrients provided by fruits, leafy…
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Purdue scientist working to remove persistent chemicals from drinking water
Tuesday, October 15th, 2019
By Brian Wallheimer Anyone who has enjoyed the ease of sliding a fried egg out of a Teflon-coated frying pan, not had to think twice about the grease from a cheeseburger soaking through the fast-food container, or watched rain water bead on a jacket rather than soak through can thank per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)….
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Purdue partnering on 5G research to improve ag automation
Thursday, October 10th, 2019
By Brian Wallheimer Purdue University scientists are collaborating with colleagues at North Carolina State University and others on fifth-generation (5G) and beyond wireless network research that holds promise for improved farm machinery automation. The National Science Foundation and an industry consortium awarded $24 million to a partnership led by North Carolina State University to build…
Read More Graduate Ag Research Spotlight: Kortany Baker
Tuesday, October 1st, 2019
KORTANY BAKER “My dream job would be at the CDC, working on the most deadly pathogens. But a big part of me wants to go into academia; I’ve had so many amazing, influential people in my life, I’d like to be that person for others.” — Kortany Baker, PhD student, Department of Biochemistry THE…
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Agricultural economics graduates selected for prestigious World Bank program
Monday, September 30th, 2019
By Emma Ea Ambrose Francis Addeah Darko earned his Master’s and Ph.D. from Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Economics but his dreams of working for the World Bank started well before his matriculation. “I grew up in a village in Ghana where the majority of people were poor and most depended on agriculture,” Darko, who graduated in…
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Dinner brings scholars and donors together
Friday, September 20th, 2019
By Emma Ea Ambrose For students like Mikayla Applegate, an Agricultural Sciences Education and Communications (ASEC) senior, the scholarships she’s received over the years aren’t just acknowledgements of her excellent coursework and campus-wide engagement, they are what will allow her to graduate in May free of school-loans. “I will make it out of college without…
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