COLLEGE NEWS - Achievements

Debra Aaron, Animal Sciences, has been named president of the Southern Section of the American Society of Animal Science for 2002-2003.

The late Kurt Anschel, agricultural economics, was posthumously awarded the 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Agricultural Economics Association. He was recognized in the August 2002 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics.

Sharon Franklin, Animal Sciences, is the 2002-2003 president of Midwest Section of the American Dairy Science Association. She was also elected to the board of directors for the Midwest Section of American Society of Animal Science/American Dairy Science Association.

Clair Hicks, Animal Sciences, and Peter Crooks, Pharmacy, received a $15,000 grant from the Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation for the development of bioactive probes derived from bacteriophage.

The Kentucky Center for Cooperative Development, Agricultural Economics, has been awarded a grant for $269,500 from USDA to continue its business development work. Heath Hoagland '98, center coordinator, and Lionel Williamson and Tim Woods, Agricultural Economics, continue to provide support for the center.

Craig Infanger, Agricultural Economics, recently completed a 27-month stay in Armenia as the director/project coordinator for the Armenia Marketing Assistance Project, USDA. He won several awards for his efforts.

Tony Pescatore, Animal Sciences, has been named first vice-president of the national Poultry Science Association for 2002-2003.

Scott Smith, Nancy Cox, Joseph Chappell, Glenn Collins, Leigh Maynard, Herb Strobel, Ernest Bailey, and Sue Nokes in the College of Agriculture and Joseph Fink, UK Corporate Relations and Economic Outreach, received a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for a project titled "A Partnering for Innovative Commercialization of Technology: University of Kentucky Natural Products Alliance." (See Grant Should Spur New Products, also on this page.)

Aslihan Spaulding, Agricultural Economics, who received her Ph.D. in agricultural economics from UK in May, 2002, was awarded the 2002 William Applebaum Memorial Scholarship Award for the outstanding Ph.D. dissertation on food distribution and marketing. She presented her research and received the award at the annual meeting of the Food Distribution Research Society in Miami in October.

Craig H. Wood and Ashley Griffin, Agricultural Communications Services, have received a $45,000 grant from the USDA to develop and implement a searchable, expandable knowledge base about horses for the Web. The project is being developed cooperatively with equine Extension specialists in 13 Southern Region states.

National Ag Ed Association Moves to Campus
The board of directors of the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) has selected Lexington as the new location for its national office. It will be on the University of Kentucky campus in collaboration with the UK College of Agriculture.

The College edged out several other universities and organizations to be the board's final choice.

The association is the main professional organization for more than 7,500 agriculture teachers, statewide ag ed coordinators, and university ag ed faculty and students. Previously, its headquarters were in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
Scott Smith, dean of the College, said the relocation "will provide our faculty, in cooperation with NAAE, an opportunity to assume an even greater leadership role in agricultural education programs at the national level."

The move will also benefit students.

"It's going to give our students a chance to be associated with a national organization and meet people and hear about issues and cutting edge trends that will make them aware of how ag education is changing," said Gary Hansen, chair of the Community and Leadership Development department.

The association's director is Jay Jackman '85, former director of student relations for the College.

Grant Should Spur New Products
Through a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, UK will be able to form more partnerships with entrepreneurs and scientists in private industry to develop new products.

The grant, called Commercialization of Technology: The UK Natural Products Alliance, will be administered through the College.

"Our college has always worked closely with private sector partners, historically farmers, to translate research into practical technologies and new enterprises," said Scott Smith, dean of UK's College of Agriculture. "The only difference in this case is that we are working on cutting-edge applications of biotechnology."

Project teams may include pharmaceutical and biochemical scientists, entrepreneurs, economic development agencies, high-tech startup firms, and a host of other participants. In some cases farmers will be partners for developing new products.

"These natural products could be plant-derived pharmaceuticals, animal food additives, or any number of other new products with potential for commercial application," said Gabriel Wilmoth in Agronomy, coordinator of the grant project for the College.

Scientists, students and other potential partners who are interested in the Natural Products Alliance programs are encouraged to contact Wilmoth at 859-608-1421 or at gcwilm2@uky.edu.

Kentucky 4-H'ers Are
No. 2 Overall in
National Competition
The Kentucky 4-H Meat Judging Team finished second place overall in last fall's National Roundup in Kansas City, Kansas.

The Harrison County team had competed successfully against six other counties to take state honors and go to the national competition. Two sets of twins were on the five-person team from Harrison County—Shelley and Shannon Wade and Mike and Jon Welch. Michael Meyers was also on the team. Coach was Benjy Mikel, UK Extension meat specialist.

The team had competed successfully against six other counties for the chance to go to national competition.

"This year's team was one of the best we have had," Mikel said. "They finished third last year and second this year at the Western Invitational nationals, which is very competitive considering they are much younger than youth from most states."
The team also placed first in retail cut judging, second in oral reasons, and second in retail identification.

College Plays Host
to Russians
The College helped host two groups of agribusiness professionals from Russia that visited Kentucky last fall.

Russian dairy product entrepreneurs were trained by the College, several Kentucky dairy processing businesses, and the Dairy Farmers of America at farms and processing plants over a three-week period.

The entrepreneurs are directors of dairy processing businesses in Russia that employ from 25 to 480 employees.

The Russian delegation spent a day at the UK Dairy Farm and then went to two farms in Washington County.

A second Russian group, of agribusiness professionals, was hosted for a day by the UK Research and Education Center at Princeton, where they got an overview of the center's research and extension activities and toured the farm and its facilities.
Some members of the group produce and process grain crops, while others are involved more in buying and storing grain. Many also have other agricultural interests in addition to grain enterprises.

Both groups came to Kentucky through the Productivity Enhancement Program of the Centers for Citizen's Initiatives, which has offered training visits to the United States for Russian business people since the 1980s.

Spanish Radio Programming Now Offered
The College has long provided Kentucky radio stations with taped programming on a wide range of topics through the Cooperative Extension Service. Now, it is offering public service announcements in Spanish.

The announcements are provided to station WYGH-1440 AM in Paris, a station that has listeners in 15 counties in Central Kentucky. They are used on a bilingual Monday-through-Friday show.

Nara De Sa Guimaraes, a student intern in Agricultural Communications Services who was born in Brazil, has helped with the scripts and promotion of the programming on the College's Web site.

The Cooperative Extension Service provides information for both the English and Spanish programming.

—Stories in College News
by News and Media Relations,
Ag Communications Services

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