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| Campus Chatter - March 16, 2011 |
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Purdue Extension educators recognized for tenure
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Indiana Extension Educators Assoc. saluted 15 Purdue Extension educators with tenure awards for 25 or 15 years of service.
The honorees were recognized during a luncheon of the Extension’s annual conference Wednesday (Nov. 10, 2010).
The honorees for 25 years are:
•Randy Brown, of Vanderburgh County. Brown has received the 4-H Distinguished Service Award and developed the Junior Leader program.
•Edie Sutton, consumer and family sciences educator in St. Joseph County. Sutton worked as a 4-H youth educator in Starke and Tippecanoe counties before moving to New York, where she was a family resource management educator in Genesee and Orleans counties.
•Lynn Korniak, of Cass County. Korniak has been a 4-H youth development section winner and received the National Assoc. of Extension 4-H Agents Distinguished Service Award.
•Mark Kepler, Extension educator for agriculture and natural resources and Extension director in Fulton County. He received the National Assoc. of County Agricultural Agents Search for Excellence Award for starting the Lake County Herb Society and Lake County Tree ReLeaf and for developing a tree program while he was in that county.
•Lori Bouslog, Sullivan County Extension director, and consumer and family sciences and 4-H youth development educator. She is president of the Indiana Extension Educators Assoc. and is a past president of the Indiana affiliate of the National Extension Assoc. of Family and Consumer Sciences.
The honorees for 15 years are:
•Gonzalee Martin, Extension educator for Allen County, where he delivers agriculture and natural resources programs. He was in the Uganda East Africa and South Africa Farmer-to-Farmer International Extension Programs.
•Steve Engleking, Extension agriculture educator for LaGrange County. He also serves as state small farm coordinator and co-chairs the Purdue Small Farms and Sustainable Agriculture Team.
•Rebecca Holbert, who works on numerous programs in Vermillion County.
•Laurie Sula, 4-H youth development Extension educator for Elkhart County. She previously was the consumer and family sciences Extension educator in Gibson County and was a visiting Extension assistant at the University of Illinois.
•Denise Schroeder, who works in consumer and family sciences in White County, specializing in family resource management. She had worked in split consumer and family sciences positions between White and Benton counties and Jasper and White counties before going to White County full-time.
•Darlene Decker of Pike County. She received the National Extension Assoc. of Family and Consumer Sciences Distinguished Service Award this year and has been section chair for the group’s Indiana affiliate.
•Amy Nierman, who is Washington County’s Extension director and works in the youth position. She previously served as the 4-H youth educator in Clark County. She has been an IEEA 4-H Youth Section Successful Program Award recipient and received Diversity Team recognition with a National Extension Leadership Development team.
•James Luzarf, who has been employed with Putnam, Montgomery and Vigo counties in positions as Extension educator and director and now is in an educator position partnering with Ivy Tech Community College.
•Janice Dougan, who has worked with Extension programs in Daviess and Warrick counties in Indiana and in two counties in Kentucky.
•Ricky Kemery, who serves as the horticulture educator in Allen County.
Purdue professor appointed chair in urban entomology
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Michael Scharf has been appointed as the first O. Wayne Rollins/Orkin Endowed Chair in Urban Entomology at Purdue University.
The appointment was announced Tuesday, Nov. 30 by Steve Yaninek, head of the entomology department.
Demand is growing in urban areas for new technologies to control persistent urban pests such as cockroaches, ants and termites and emerging problems such as bedbugs. Scharf brings new skills and expertise in molecular biology to the Center for Urban and Industrial Pest Management at Purdue. The center and the endowed chair are products of a unique partnership between the department and the urban pest management industry that spans 75 years.
The chair was funded with a $1.5 million gift from the O. Wayne Rollins Foundation, established by and named for the late owner and president of pest control leader, Orkin.
Scharf has developed a nationally recognized program in molecular insect physiology that features toxicology, gene identification and cloning, development and metamorphosis, and cellulosics. Recent research of his demonstrates the prospects of using termites as a simpler and less expensive method to convert plant material to ethanol, including his discovery of two enzymes in termites used to break up lignin, a major obstacle in the production of cellulosic ethanol.
His research in pest management has involved a wide range of insect species, including termites, cockroaches, corn rootworms, borers, houseflies, mosquitoes, mole crickets, chinch bugs, midges and honeybees.
The O. Wayne Rollins Foundation, created in 1967, continues the mission of the man who founded Orkin’s parent company. The foundation’s goal is to support medical research and public health issues at colleges and universities.
UK ag scientist receives prestigious honor
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Paul Bertsch, professor of soil and environmental chemistry in the University of Kentucky Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, was recently elected fellow of the American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific organization.
Bertsch, who is also director of UK’s Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment, is a soil chemist who studies how contaminants move through soil and if they end up in the food chain. His current focus is on manufactured nanomaterials that are released into the environment. Nanomaterials, often manufactured from zinc, titanium dioxide and silver, are typically added to products such as personal care items, clothing and food-storage devices.
In electing him a fellow, the American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science cited Bertsch for “distinguished contributions and scientific leadership to the soil and environmental science disciplines, particularly for work elucidating mechanisms underlying the fate and transport of contaminants.”
Being awarded fellow of the association is among the most prestigious honors bestowed on a scientist by his or her peers.
“It is a great honor to be elected fellow of AAAS,” Bertsch said. “Recognition of my accomplishments at this level is testimony to the quality students, post docs and colleagues whom I have had the pleasure to work with over my career.”
With his election, Bertsch becomes only the 17th AAAS fellow in Kentucky and joins two other colleagues in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences who have received this honor, Professors Dennis Egli and Joseph Chappell. |
| 3/17/2011 |
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