Debbie Christel, assistant professor in Apparel, Merchandising, Design and Textiles, is working with WSU First Lady Noel Schulz to develop improved professional collegiate apparel choices for women. Christel’s students have created an online survey on women’s clothing to help develop new designs.
To take part, visit the survey website. The survey can also be forwarded to others who would be interested in WSU professional apparel. It closes Sept. 14.
Workshop will help SDC students expand Tribe’s village
The Rural Communities Design Initiative, a School of Design and Construction program that links students with civic projects, hosts community workshops for the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe Village Expansion this month.
The workshops are at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, September 15, and 9 a.m. Friday, Sept. 16, at the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Village’s Tribal Community Building. It will help the Tribe develop a concept model for its expanded village, and looks at culture, tradition and character, housing, infrastructure and other topics.
All are welcome. To learn more, call Monica Babine, Senior Associate, Program for Digital Initiatives, at (206) 999-8032.
Rayapati leads Cambodia workshop on plant viruses
Naidu Rayapati, associate professor and plant pathologist at WSU’s Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center at Prosser, co-organized and took part in a three-day workshop on diagnosis and management of plant virus diseases, August 10-12 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The USAID Feed The Future event was hosted by the plant pathology division of the Royal University of Agriculture. It was part of a research project funded by USAID’s IPM Innovation Lab managed by Virginia Tech. It builds the science capacity of plant pathologists, extension and non-governmental personnel to cut losses in Cambodia’s subsistence crops, such as tomato, eggplant and vegetable legumes, due to viruses.
Global reach of the Clean Plant Center
A group of apple and pear growers from Lebanon visited the Clean Plant Center Northwest at WSU Prosser on August 22, learning about production of pathogen-tested fruit trees. The visit was set up by USAID, the United States Agency for International Development.
The visitors wanted to learn about the center and its fruit tree programs. The group learned about the center’s mission from Associate Professor Naidu Rayapati, and toured facilities and fields.
Awards and Grants
Power of big data drives tree database grant project
A team led by Dorrie Main, professor in the Department of Horticulture, is harnessing the power of ‘big data’ to help growers create the next generation of healthy, sustainable forests and tree crops.
The National Science Foundation funded a $3 million grant in July to create cyber-infrastructure that helps researchers and breeders share and use tree data. Main’s team includes Sook Jung, associate research professor; Stephen Ficklin, WSU associate professor of horticulture; and colleagues at the Universities of Connecticut, Tennessee and Kentucky. The project will use servers at Main’s lab as well as WSU’S new Kamiak supercomputer. Read more here.
National prize honors report on Yakima water projects
A report outlining the benefits and costs of proposed water management efforts in Washington’s Yakima Basin has won a national prize from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
The Bruce Gardner Memorial Prize for Applied Policy Analysis went to a research team led by Jonathan Yoder, professor in the School of Economic Sciences and director of the State of Washington Water Research Center.
Tell your story with video: Awards for Lane, Tampien
Trevor Lane, WSU Ferry County Extension director, and Jordan Tampien, WSU Regional Business specialist, presented at the 2016 National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA) annual meeting on the importance of storytelling through high quality interactive videos.
Lane and Tampien won two awards, state and regional, for their video work on Ferry County’s agritourism, agriculture, and heritage video, produced in a county profile.
Storytelling is an important way to enhance economic development and market programs in agriculture or agritourism. Quality video production can be expensive, but there are ways to tell your story affordably. Lane and Tampien covered methods and tips to offset costs while achieving top shelf High Definition video. Watch their Ferry County video here.
National award for Ag agents’ research poster
Steve Norberg, Franklin County Extension Agricultural Specialist; Don Llewellyn, Extension Regional Livestock Specialist; Steve Fransen, Forage Crops Specialist; and Shannon Neibergs, Extension Economist, received a second place National Winner honor for their research poster at the National Association of County Agricultural Agents meeting, held in July in Little Rock, Ark.
In the poster, they showcased tools that help Timothy hay growers assess nitrogen needs to boost yield and profit.
Chlorophyll meter calibration allows for in-field determination of nitrogen needs, while the leaf tissue test provides tissue calibration for laboratories. Producers are very interested in both tools, including the Kittitas Timothy Hay Growers Association, who purchased a chlorophyll meter.
The research was funded by the International Plant Nutrition Institute, the WSU BioAg program, and the Washington State Hay Growers Association.
$1M in grants for WSU entomology research
Grants this summer netted more than $1 million in research dollars for WSU insect experts.
• Associate Entomologist Doug Walsh received a $82,000 grant from University of California at Davis USDA/National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
• Walsh also received a $17,951 grant from the USDA/ARS for the Alfalfa Pollinator Research Initiative
• Professor and entomologist Elizabeth Beers earned a $105,424 grant from the Fresh Pear Commission.
• Beers and Dave Crowder, affiliate assistant professor, received $800,000 from the USDA’s Specialty Crop Research Initiative to manage brown marmorated stink bugs in U.S. specialty crops.
Human Development grants, awards roll in
Faculty in the Department of Human Development earned more than a quarter-million dollars in grants this summer for upcoming projects exploring youth and family health, drug addiction and student success.
• Associate Professor Michael Cleveland received a $233,672 National Institutes of Health grant for “Informing Cultural Adaptation of a Parent-Based Intervention for African American Youth.”
• Assistant Professor Elizabeth Weybright and Extension Diversity Director Mary Katherine Deen received a $38,000 grant from the National 4-H Council, titled” Youth Voice, Youth Choice Presented by WSU YA4-H!”.
• Assistant professor Kim Rhoades leads a team including Jenn Crawford, Human Development Extension Educator for North Central Washington; Ana Maria Martinez, assistant professor in the Extension Youth and Families Program Unit; and Laura Hill, Human Development chair, on a $25,000 contract from the Washington state Department of Health studying Latino adult health communication preferences regarding marijuana use.
• Associate Professor Matthew Bumpus received a grant from the WSU Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Program for a project looking at “Parental Notification Following Substance Use Violations.” Brittany Cooper and Laura Hill are co-investigators.
• Hill, the primary investigator, with co-investigators Cooper and Bumpus, received a $2.4 million National Institutes of Health grant for “A Randomized Trial of Letting Go and Staying Connected, an Interactive Parenting Intervention to Reduce Risky Behaviors Among Students.”
• Denise Yost, clinical assistant professor in the Center for Transformational Learning and Leadership, and Hill are primary investigators with Samantha Swindell, clinical professor in the Department of Psychology, on a WSU Student Success Initiative grant titled “Student Success through Transformational Change: Individual and Institutional.”
• Assistant Professor Amy Salazar is primary investigator on a National Institutes of Health grant, “A Trial of Connecting to Prevent Drug Abuse and Risky Behaviors in Foster Teens.”
Dolezal, Bolding take third in paper competition
Horticulture graduate students Chandler Dolezal and Kathryn Bolding tied for third place in a nationwide student paper-presentation competition.
Dolezal is working toward a doctorate and Bolding seeks a master’s degree in applied potato agronomy under the direction of Associate Professor Mark Pavek. In the history of the competition, it is rare that two students from the same program place in the top three. Each received a cash award along with a recognition certificate.
