CAHNRS News – October 8

NRC Doctoral Programs Assessment Released

On Sept. 28, the National Research Council released Assessment of Research Doctoral Programs. If you are unfamiliar with this study, it is a data-driven assessment of doctoral programs nationwide that is conducted approximately every 10 years. This most recent report differs slightly from early assessments due to changes in data collection and calculation. The data for the report was collected through administrator, faculty, and student surveys, as well as collection of publication and citation counts in 38 programs at WSU (10 within CAHNRS) during the 2006-2007 academic year. These are important data that are commonly used by potential graduate students to assess program quality.

The full report including the raw data used for these summaries is available at: http://www.nap.edu/rdp. You can also access the report at http://researchdocs.nas.edu or http://sites.nationalacademies.org/pga/Resdoc/.

Elementary Students Learn and Lunch at WSU Mount Vernon

When elementary students won a national farm/food video contest, they chose to use the prize money for a field trip to the WSU Mount Vernon Research Center on Sept. 24.

More than 80 students in grades 3-6 and their teachers enjoyed presentations, tours of the demonstration gardens and orchards, and hands-on displays of regional crop production issues facilitated by faculty and graduate students.

Lunch prepared by volunteers in the center’s demonstration kitchen featured locally grown roasted vegetables, chicken and apple crisp. “It was amazing to see the kids eating the vegetables (potatoes, carrots and even leeks and beets),” said Stephen Jones, professor and director of the center. “They loved them!”

The students are from Lincoln Elementary in Mount Vernon, which maintains it own school garden. Earlier this year, the students won the National Farm to School Real Food video contest (http://video.farmtoschool.org/video/53/lincolns-journey-to-real-food). The award came with a check for $1,000 to further the school’s capacity to offer agricultural education. The students used the money to visit two vegetable farms before coming to WSU Mount Vernon to finish the tour and eat their healthy lunch.

Check out a photo slideshow of the students’ visit at http://wsutoday.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp?Action=Detail&PublicationID=21883&TypeID=1.

Dr. Roger Beachy to Deliver 2010 Sam Smith Lecture

Dr. Roger Beachy, chief scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and director of the new National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will present the Sam Smith Lecture beginning at 4 p.m., Monday, Oct. 11, in room T101 of the Food Science and Human Nutrition Building. “The Role of Agricultural Research and Technology in Addressing Societal Challenges” will be the topic of Beachy’s presentation, which will be preceded by a reception at 2:45 p.m. in the Food Science and Human Nutrition Building ground floor lobby, and streamed online at http://www.experience.wsu.edu/. In addition, Dr. Beachy will be meeting with WSU students, faculty and staff on both Oct. 11 and 12. Contact Hanu Pappu, 335-9541 or hrp@wsu.edu for more information.

Just a reminder

All printing, design and editing inquiries and requests still can be fielded through the new CAHNRS Marketing, News, and Educational Communications, formerly Extension Publishing and Printing, despite reorganization with University Publishing. Contact Lagene Taylor at 335-2823 or Karla Dolph at 335-2999 for more information.

New Director of the WSU/UI School of Food Science

Dr. Denise M. Smith has been offered and accepted the position of Director of the Bi-State School of Food Science at Washington State University and the University of Idaho. Dr. Smith is the Founding Director of the Bi-State School established in 2009. Dr. Smith joins WSU after spending four years as professor and chair of the Department of Food Science and Technology at the Ohio State University, one of the largest food science units in the nation. We look forward to Dr. Smith’s arrival on campus on Nov. 1, 2010.