Call for 2011-2012 CAHNRS Advising, Extension, Research, Staff, Teaching, and Team Award Nominations
We encourage administrators, faculty, students, and staff to nominate deserving candidates from your department or program in as many categories as possible, but request nominations be limited to one person per award category per department. A new award was created this year to acknowledge people that have been in a faculty appointment for less than ten years for extraordinary contributions to research, extension and/or teaching, which is called the Early Career Excellence Award. Review the guidelines for this award on the official CAHNRS award webpage, http://academic.cahnrs.wsu.edu/awards.htm.
Please carefully consider making an effort to acknowledge those among us who have made extraordinary efforts to contribute to the CAHNRS experience, because they deserve to be noticed. For more information about these awards and instructions on how to nominate deserving individuals, please visit: http://academic.cahnrs.wsu.edu/Awards/criteria/prescreening.html. Award nomination letters are due next Thursday, Dec. 8. Please email letters to Sean McIlraith at smcilraith@wsu.edu.
Academic Showcase Call for Abstracts
Leverage the power of your ideas by sharing them with WSU colleagues at the 2012 Academic Showcase.
It’s easy to do.
Submit your abstract of 250 words or less and your contact information.
Detailed information about WSU Showcase, the Academic Showcase, and abstract submission guidelines can be found online. The Deadline is Tuesday, Jan. 31.
Academic Showcase is a celebration of original scholarship, research, and creative expression by members of the WSU community and will be held on March 30 this year.
CAHNRS Student Recruiter Position Finalists Presentations
Finalists for the CAHNRS student recruiter position will be interviewing next week and the week of Dec. 12. Please join us for each of their public presentations and Q&A sessions:
Jenna McCoy, 2:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 8, FSHN T101
Kristie Clark, 2:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 9, FSHN T101
Joshua Whiting, 2 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 13, FSHN T101
Andrea Young, 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 14, FSHN T101
Canadian Wine Lecture and Tasting
The School of Food Science and WSU Canadian Studies present distinguished lecturer Dr. Andy Reynolds, professor of viticulture at the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute at Brock University, Canada.
Thursday, December 8
Overview of the Canadian Wine Industry: Past and Present
12:10-1:10 pm in T101 FSHN Building
(broadcast to Tri-Cities and Prosser)
Canadian Wine Industry and Canadian Wine Tasting
4-5 p.m. lecture in Todd Hall Dining Room
5-6:30 p.m. wine tasting in Todd Hall Dining Room
Must be age 21+ and RSVP to Carolyn Ross, cfross@wsu.edu
Flavour in the Vineyard
12-1 p.m. in FSHN 104A
Pizza and pop will be served
(broadcast to Tri-Cities and Prosser)
Holiday party
Pam and Dan Bernardo extend an invitation to you and yours to join all CAHNRS and WSU Extension faculty and staff at the annual holiday gathering on Dec. 15 from 3:30 – 6 p.m. in the Ensminger Pavilion.
We’ll gather and enjoy each other’s company, share good food, good music, and good cheer. We are excited to once again have a special guest joining us at our party… Santa Butch!
Please bring an appetizer or dessert to share; the college will provide non-alcoholic beverages, beer and wine.
The true focus of our annual gathering is giving, especially to those in need in our own communities.
Please bring canned and nonperishable food, toiletries or paper products for area food banks. Dan and Pam are once again happy to match your contributions pound for pound. Last year, we donated over 2,000 pounds to food banks in our communities — let’s break that record in 2011!
Here’s to celebrating the joy of the season with colleagues and friends!
52nd Week Closure
Last fall university officials announced Washington State University will close all non-essential business operations and associated buildings at all locations during the last week of Dec. (Dec. 25 – Jan. 1). To learn more about the 52nd week closure visit: http://hrs.wsu.edu/HR Essentials or contact our Human Resource Services Representative, Kimberly Maupin, directly at 509-335-1231 or kdyce@wsu.edu.
Green Times
Green Times, the new e-newsletter from the College, launched Nov. 1. Featuring news covering WSU sustainable and organic ag, the editors welcome your news tips, story ideas, and items for the event calendar. The newsletter is archived at bit.ly/greentimes. The Green Times event calendar is located at http://bit.ly/greenevents.
Women in Ag Conference
The 2012 Women in Ag Conference is slated for Feb. 11. Get more info online at http://bit.ly/s4aJuG.
Tukey Fruit Sale
Sales of already picked apples, pears and potatoes continue at the Tukey Orchard, Fridays noon to 6 p.m. through December. Get more info online at http://bit.ly/sevAsE.
Surf Report
A video about Phase III of the horticulture and landscape architecture display garden is up at http://bit.ly/trvJSn.
A video featuring recent grads Margaret Parsley (animal sciences ’10) and Jason Parsley (organic agriculture systems ’10) is up at http://bit.ly/uj95ch. The couple have founded Omache Farm just outside of Pullman and are making a go at raising heritage sheep and organic vegetables.
Lynne Carpenter-Boggs is working with an international group of scientists to help find bean varieties and microbial inoculates that will improve yields on the ancient soils that farms in many parts of Africa must contend with. Dr. Carpenter-Boggs took a Flip camera to Africa and shot some wonderful footage of farms, people and animals. Check out the resulting video and interview at http://bit.ly/rgGj7c.
Cultivating Success is a program run through a partnership between Washington State University, University of Idaho, and Rural Roots with a goal to increase producer and consumer understanding, value, and support of sustainable local farming systems in Washington and Idaho through educational and experiential opportunities. Courses are offered in various locations throughout Washington and Idaho. Here is a video featuring Lora Lee Misterly, a graduate of the program and a farmer-entrepreneur in Rice, Wash., where she farms with her husband Rick at Quillisascut Farm School. http://bit.ly/qUFFFw
Building and programming robots turned out to be lots of fun for a group of Whitman County youth. During a week-long camp, kids ages 7 to 16 used the Lego Mindstrom NXT kit to design robots. Using math, problem solving, and teamwork, the students had “bot battles” where they put their finished robots to the test! In this short video, the participants talk about their experiences building robots… and having robot battles! Check out the video at http://bit.ly/oiQP3f.
A story by Nella Letizia about the student club ASqaured features the group making surgical caps for National Childhood Cancer Awareness. Check the story out on the Academic Programs web site at http://bit.ly/vpeehT.
Another story by Letizia focuses on kids making big changes at home by bringing nutrition lessons to the table. “You know how ice cream is kind of healthy and kind of not? It has calcium, but it also has sugar,” one of the featured kids says in the story. “I asked for carrots because they are healthier. Fiber clears out the intestines.” Check it out at http://bit.ly/tf0krl.
The 2012 issue of Connections is online. The feature stories this year all focus on “Big Ideas… and Big Results.” Visit the magazine at http://bit.ly/ssS27N.
Kudos
The Capital Press featured an article on Kevin Murphy‘s innovative research on quinoa. Check it out at http://www.capitalpress.com/newsletter/mw-Western-Innovator-Kevin-Murphy-111111-art.
B. W. “Joe” Poovaiah, Regents Professor in the department of horticulture and landscape architecture, has been elected to the rank of Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for his “distinguished contributions to plant science, particularly for recognizing the significance of calcium/calmodulin-mediated signaling in plant growth, plant-microbe interactions and plant defense.” Dr. Poovaiah will be honored during the AAAS Fellows Forum at the association’s annual meeting on Feb. 18, 2012, in Vancouver, British Columbia.