Texas A&M AgriLife Research honors faculty, staff with annual awards

Texas A&M AgriLife Research honored nine individuals and a team with Texas A&M AgriLife Research Director’s Awards during the Texas A&M AgriLife Conference on Jan. 9 in College Station.

The Research Director’s Awards, established in 2018, recognize the achievements of those who have performed outstanding work that advances the agency’s mission.

Individual awards and recipients are as follows:

Faculty Fellow Awards

Faculty Fellow – Xiuren Zhang, Ph.D., professor, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, College Station.

Faculty Fellow – Sandun Fernando, Ph.D., professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, College Station.

Senior Faculty Fellow – Wayne Smith, Ph.D., professor and associate department head, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, College Station.

Senior Faculty Fellow – Gary Williams, Regents Fellow, AgriLife Research Faculty Fellow, research leader at the Animal Reproduction Laboratory, Beeville.

William A. Dugas Early Career Award for Research Excellence

Junjie Zhang, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, College Station.

Research Scientist of the Year Award

Girisha Ganjegunte, Ph.D., leader, AgriLife Research water resources and salinity management research group, El Paso.

Collaboration Award

Amarillo Water Management Team: Thomas Marek, AgriLife Research senior research engineer, Amarillo; Dana Porter, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service program leader/Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Lubbock; Jiang Hu, Ph.D., co-director of graduate programs, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College Station; Gary Marek, Ph.D., U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service agricultural engineer, Bushland; and Qingwu Xue, Ph.D., AgriLife Research crop stress physiologist, Amarillo.

Infrastructure Staff Support Award

Terry Lovingshimer, facilities manager, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, College Station.

Technical Staff Support Award

Lisa Prcin, senior research associate, AgriLife Extension, Temple.

Administrative Staff

Kathy Wingate, administrator, AgriLife Research, Amarillo.