Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences expertise recognized at international conference

The Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Soil and Crop Sciences demonstrated the excellence its faculty and students are known for by accepting numerous awards during the annual American Society of Agronomy, ASA, Crop Science Society of America, CSSA, and Soil Science Society of America, SSSA, international meeting recently held in San Antonio.

Department head David Baltensperger, Ph.D., was presented the Distinguished Service Award by the Crop Science Society of America. The award is presented to an individual who displays distinguished administration, research, teaching, extension and commercial activities to advance the profession’s science, practice, outreach and status.

Seven other faculty members were recognized as Fellows by the different societies. Fellow is the highest recognition bestowed by the various societies. Members of each society nominate worthy colleagues based on their professional achievements and meritorious service.

Baltensperger recognized for department leadership

Baltensperger’s leadership and administration of a department widely recognized for its quality, size and diversity of subject matter were highlighted during the award presentation.

Baltensperger is a past president of the CSSA, the Council of Scientific Society Presidents and the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology. He has also been active in several other scientific societies and agricultural advisory boards including the ASA, CSSA, SSSA, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Texas State Seed and Plant Board, and the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education and Economics.

He has received numerous awards and recognition, including the prestigious Fellow recognition in the CSSA, ASA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also has been honored with the Texas A&M AgriLife Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence for administration and the Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Plant Protection Association.

Fellow titles awarded to seven faculty

Crop Science Society of America Fellows

• Qingwu Xue, Ph.D., is a Regents Fellow, professor and crop stress physiologist at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Amarillo. His primary objective is to improve yield, water use, water-use efficiency and stress resistance or tolerance in major crops in the Texas High Plains. Xue earned the ASA Fellow title last year and is an active member of ASA, CSSA and SSSA. He is an associate editor of the Agronomy Journal and an editorial board member of the Journal of Integrative Agriculture.

• Lee Tarpley, Ph.D., is an AgriLife Research plant physiologist and professor at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Beaumont. His research focuses on how crops, especially rice, grow and respond to the environment and related crop management and genetic improvements. He is best known for his research on the effects and response of high night temperature stress on rice. His leadership activities include the CSSA Board of Directors for six years, past chair of the Rice Technical Working Group, and three years on the Texas A&M Council of Principal Investigators executive committee.
  
• Ambika Chandra, Ph.D., is the AgriLife Research leader of the Turfgrass Breeding and Urban Landscapes Program at Dallas and assistant director at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Dallas. Her research is focused primarily on breeding turfgrass cultivars, which requires an interdisciplinary approach involving high-throughput phenotyping, genomics, physiology, agronomy, soil sciences and more. Her program has developed stress-tolerant and climate-resilient turfgrass cultivars produced worldwide.

American Society of Agronomy Fellows

• Paul DeLaune, Ph.D., is an AgriLife Research environmental soil scientist, Regents Professor and Faculty Fellow, Vernon. DeLaune has made significant contributions in two critical areas of U.S. agriculture: nutrient fate and transport, and soil and water conservation. Producers have readily adopted practices recommended by his research that protect soil and water resources while maintaining agronomic and economic goals. He has also actively served ASA through community and section leadership as well as journal editorial roles.
• Julie Howe, Ph.D., is a professor and associate department head for undergraduate programs, Bryan-College Station. Howe received the SSSA Fellow award last year. Her research program focuses on soil chemistry and fertility with an emphasis on the effects of land management on the profitability and sustainability of agroecosystems and the cycling of nutrients and carbon in the soil. She leads the $65 million Texas Climate-Smart Initiative, a five-year, large-scale pilot project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service.
  
• Cristine Morgan, Ph.D., is the chief scientific officer of the Soil Health Institute and an adjunct faculty member in the Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences. Her research emphasis includes soil hydrology, pedometrics and global soil security. While at Texas A&M, Morgan conducted ground-breaking research on how management practices influence soil-plant-water relations and developed methods for easily measuring soil carbon. She is an SSSA Fellow and served as a member of the SSSA board of directors.

Soil Science Society of America Fellow

• Terry Gentry, Ph.D., professor of soil and aquatic microbiology, Bryan-College Station, was presented the Fellow title based on his research on applied microbial processes including detection and remediation of soil and water contamination and the sustainability of intensive cropping systems. He earned the ASA Fellow title last year and is active in both the ASA and SSSA. He is an advisor for the Texas A&M Agronomy Society undergraduate club.

Special awards

Turfgrass Breeder’s Association’s Breeder’s Cup

Chandra also was recognized with the Turfgrass Breeders Association’s Breeder’s Cup for “Cobalt” St. Augustine grass. The Breeder’s Cup is awarded to the turfgrass breeder and the cultivar that best exemplifies originality in developing a turf cultivar. The Texas A&M Turfgrass Program is a partnership between Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences.

Golden Opportunity Scholars

Victor Hernandez, a senior undergraduate researcher majoring in plant and environmental soil science focusing on plant genetics, was presented the Golden Opportunity Scholar award, sponsored by all three societies. Hernandez conducts research at the Crop Genome Editing Lab on fertilization’s effect on hemp nutrition and growth. He is a member of the Texas A&M Agronomy Society and the Cannabis Hemp Innovation League.

ASA

–  Frank D. Keim Graduate Fellowship — Christopher Barron, graduate student with bachelor’s degrees in plant and environmental science-crop emphasis and biochemistry, Bryan-College Station.
–  Tengtou Agricultural Science Award — Shuyu Liu, Ph.D., AgriLife Research wheat breeder and a wheat genetics and genomics professor, Bryan-College Station.
–  Early Career Award — Dianna Bagnall, Ph.D., research soil scientist at the Soil Health Institute and adjunct faculty in the Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences.

CSSA

–  Crop Science Research Award — Bill Rooney, Ph.D., AgriLife Research sorghum breeder, professor and Borlaug-Monsanto Chair for Plant Breeding and International Crop Improvement, Bryan-College Station.
–  Crop Science Teaching Award — Kathy Carson, Ph.D., instructional assistant professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Bryan-College Station.

Students of Agronomy, Soils and Environmental Sciences

• Pedro Chavez Villanueva, an agronomy undergraduate student, was elected as recording officer.

Student poster and presentation award winners

Graduate students

• Christopher Cobos, first place, soil and water management and conservation.
• Jonathan Kerman, second place, pedology oral competition.
• Ashton Franks, second place, poster competition; second place, oral competition.
• Jaiveer Brar, first place, research poster competition, global climate change.
• Angeles Zuniga, first place, poster and five-minute rapid oral session, plant genetic resources.
• Hendra Gonsalve Lasar, second place, poster.
• Joe Johnson, first place, poster competition, organic management systems.
• Donovan Davis, second place, oral competition, global climate change.
• Ryan Hamberg, second place, oral presentation; first place, poster, weedy and invasive plant species.
• Parjinder Sidhu, third place, graduate student oral competition, evapotranspiration measurement and modeling.
• Sarah Chu, first place, oral competition, CANVAS.
• Pulkit Juneja, first place, poster competition, agronomic production systems, semi-arid dryland cropping systems.
• Khushboo Rastogi, third place, rapid oral session, crops for nutrition and health.
• Navjot Singh, third place, poster competition, precision agriculture systems.
• Fabian Leon, Encompass Fellow.
• Holly Petrowicz, third place, poster and five-minute rapid oral presentation, soil fertility and nutrient management.
• Chiawei Lin, second place, presentation, soil mineralogy.
• Varun Kumar Reddy Cheruku, second place, poster competition, global climate change.
• Deepa Khadka, second place, oral competition.

Undergraduate students

• Ryan Gibson, second place, crop disease, pest, weed control.
• Chloe Tilley, third place, manuscript contest.
• Amy Skelton, second place, oral research symposium.