Site Archive
Anton Terekhov knows it’s important to keep the analytical instrumentation at the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research operating properly. But even as he focuses on maintaining the equipment, he also values the human talent that surrounds him at work every day.
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Purdue University will be a partner in a new National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center created to develop advanced agricultural technologies to address food, energy and water security challenges.
With a five-year, $26 million grant, the NSF has established the Engineering Research Center for the Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture (IoT4Ag). Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) are NSF’s flagship engineering program for convergent research to address large-scale societal challenges.
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Jixuan (Edie) Yao’s research addresses questions others may not think to associate with agricultural economics. And to answer them, Yao prefers to let the data speak for her.
“I don’t want to argue.” Instead, Yao said she would rather use solid research to convince people “in a silent, but powerful way.”
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Low-moisture products, such as flour, dried fruit and nuts, are often perceived as safe from food pathogens in consumer’s eyes despite recent bacteria outbreaks. Like other raw food commodities, these low-moisture food products are at risk for foodborne bacteria if there isn’t a “kill step” or heating process to eradicate bacteria during harvest or processing.
“Historically consumers don’t think about low moisture or dry foods having food safety issues. We want to raise awareness among the public about how they can properly handle these food products and reduce the risk,” said Yaohua Feng, assistant professor of food science at Purdue University.
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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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“My research is at the intersection of food science and nutrition – creating new foods that impact health,” explained Sarah Corwin, a doctoral candidate in the department of food science. “We are translating science all the way to something that could impact lives.”
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“Being trapped inside during the coronavirus pandemic has been hard on my mental health, as I’m sure it has been for many of us,” shared Jessica Outcalt. “Defending my dissertation three days before the world began shutting down, finishing my degree in the middle of a global pandemic and graduating with my Ph.D. via a virtual ceremony I watched while birds sang in my backyard was a wild experience.
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Some days, Alex Helms has a difficult time transitioning from his job as the farm technical coordinator at the Southeast Purdue Agricultural Center (SEPAC) to working on his uncles’ farm not far from his workplace. At SEPAC, he uses an autosteer tractor and automated system to spread fertilizer. On the family-run farm, he drives the tractor himself and counts rows. “Going from one to the other can be humbling,” he says. “I definitely get a different perspective on how my uncles or neighbors manage their crops.”
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Marian Rodriguez-Soto remembers visiting her aunt’s garden as a young girl and being puzzled by the cabbages. Some looked different, so she asked her aunt for an explanation. “She told me they were sick,” Rodriguez-Soto recalled. “I was little, so my mind was blown – I didn’t believe that plants got sick.”
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After 75 years, Max Judge still recalls a simple question that set the course for decades of progress in meat science.
Growing up on a farm in Henry County, Judge showed pigs through 4-H. “In 1945, I had the opportunity to host the county pig tour,” Judge recalled. “Lo and behold, leading the tour was Hobe Jones.” Jones taught animal sciences at Purdue for 38 years. “I was excited to tell Hobe that my brother had worked with pigs at Purdue under Cliff Breeden. My brother had told me that Cliff kept his pigs from getting too fat by feeding them by hand instead of on a feeder.”
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“I had heard about Purdue when I was in Africa; how it requires you to be smart and to work extra hard, but that the university is unique,” said Theoneste Nzaranyimana, “I was inspired that if I get into this university, my dream could come true.”
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Herb Ohm had no intention of retiring in 2014. He still had work to do and, by his own calculations, he’d be in the field and lab for at least another three years when he would turn 70.
After earning his doctorate under famed Purdue wheat breeder and agronomist Fred Patterson, Ohm joined the Purdue faculty in 1971, eventually becoming the leader of the wheat-breeding program when Patterson retired in 1986. One of Ohm’s specialties was crossing wheat with wild and exotic species that contained genes long left behind by those who had cultivated modern wheat varieties. The hope was that those exotic species have natural genetic resistance to pests and diseases.
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Jason Adams starts each workday by checking the Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center (ICSC) physical plant and the equipment that researchers have reserved for the day. “I’m an equipment junkie, and Purdue has given me a lot to take care of,” he says.
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Ethan Hillman likens his arrival at Purdue to speed dating. Hillman, who chose the Purdue Interdisciplinary Life Science (PULSe) program for graduate study, rotated through multiple labs, looking to find the right match for the next five years.
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