Texas A&M AgriLife faculty receive Distinguished Achievement Awards
Awards of excellence given by The Association of Former Students
Texas A&M AgriLife faculty members in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have been selected to receive Distinguished Achievement Awards from The Association of Former Students at Texas A&M University.
Among the most prestigious awards presented to faculty and staff by Texas A&M, the Distinguished Achievement Awards are given to those who exhibit the highest standards of excellence at Texas A&M. These awards honor faculty and staff for excellence in teaching, research, student relations, graduate mentoring, educational outreach, professional development, administration and staff support.
Recipients are chosen by a campus-wide committee composed of faculty, students, former students and staff. They will be honored on April 24 at a university awards ceremony luncheon in the MSC Bethancourt Ballroom.
2023 Graduate Mentoring Award
- Bruce A. McCarl, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics, Department of Agricultural Economics.
McCarl is a Senior Fellow, Regents Professor and Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics. His recent research efforts have mainly involved policy analysis, primarily focusing on climate change, mitigation and adaptation as well as water economics. He also teaches applied mathematical programming and applied risk analysis.
He is an internationally recognized agricultural economist who has made significant contributions related to agriculture, climate change and environmental economics. McCarl was also part of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
2023 Award for Research
- Bruce A. McCarl, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics, Department of Agricultural Economics.
- Binayak P. Mohanty, Ph.D., Regents Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
Mohanty is a global pioneer in the framework for scaling up soil hydrologic processes, providing a bridge across spatial and temporal scales. His work reflects futuristic scientific concepts and holistic efforts that have steadily shaped multi-scale soil hydrologic science.
Innovative lab experiments, comprehensive field monitoring, advanced process modeling, novel data analyses and cutting-edge remote sensing are hallmarks of Mohanty’s extensive contributions. His work also includes 146 premier journal papers, 40 book chapters and proceedings, 281 abstracts and 458 national and international presentations. Among numerous accolades, Mohanty is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Soil Science Society of America and Agronomy Society of America. Also, he holds an appointment with both Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Texas A&M Engineering.
2023 Award for Teaching
- Adrienne Brundage, Ph.D., instructional assistant professor, Department of Entomology.
- Andy D. Herring, Ph.D., interim department head, Department of Animal Science.
- Scott Shafer, Ph.D., professor, Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences.
Brundage is a lecturer of entomology and forensics. She specializes in forensic entomology and has consulted with local and federal law enforcement agencies on abuse, neglect and death cases. She teaches entomology and forensics at Texas A&M and the University of Florida, and has also taught courses at San Jose University, Baylor University and Blinn College.
Herring is the holder of the John K. Riggs ’41 beef cattle professorship and a member of the Texas A&M intercollegiate faculty of genetics. He teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level classes in beef cattle production. His research focus is increasing production efficiency for cow-calf producers through the coordination of breeding systems, environmental resources and marketing strategies.
Shafer teaches park planning and design, foundations of recreation, park and tourism sciences, plus field courses specializing in park and protected area management, urban parks and public spaces, and study abroad in natural resources. His research focuses on applying planning processes to park and tourism environments, recreation specialization and trail experiences.
For the full list of award winners at Texas A&M, visit Texas A&M Today.
