Hall of Honored Alumni and Friends
You are invited to join us for the induction of Bonnie Suzanne “Sue” Christianson (Food Science & Technology ‘76), Gordon Davis (Agriculture ‘68, Agricultural Education ‘69), and Dianne Jefferies (Clothing and Textiles ‘78) into the Hall of Honored Alumni and Friends
9 a.m. Sept. 25, 2010; Hulbert Hall Room 421, WSU, Pullman, Washington
Please RSVP to Britta Nitcy, 509-335-6479 or nitcy@wsu.edu.
Harvest Party at WSU Organic Farm, Saturday, Oct. 2
Everyone is welcome to come celebrate fall harvest at WSU’s Organic Farm annual Harvest Party, Oct. 2 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Harvest Party activities include hay wagon rides around the farm, face painting, and fresh pressed apple cider. There will be a U-pick pumpkin patch with traditional jack-o-lanterns, baby pumpkins, and a few novelty varieties.
“The star of the party will be a not-so-giant pumpkin on display,” said organic farm manager Brad Jaeckel. “Party-goers are invited to take a guess at the pumpkin’s weight. The closest guess wins the giant or a more reasonable sized jack-o-lantern of the winner’s choice.”
The WSU Organic Farm is located inside Tukey Horticulture Orchard on the corner of Airport Road and Terre View. The orchard will also be open for U-pick and pre-picked fruit sales. For more information, contact farm manager Brad Jaeckel at 509-335-5893 or email him at jaeckel@wsu.edu.
New Director of the WSU/UI School of Food Science
Denise Smith has accepted the position as Director of the School of Food Science, effective Nov. 1, 2010. It is also our pleasure to announce that Jeff Culbertson has accepted a position as Professor of Food Science and Director of the WSU Masters of Science in Agriculture distance program in CAHNRS. Jeff will start his position at Washington State University on Jan 1, 2011, upon completion of his teaching responsibilities at Ohio State.
This marks a solid “beginning” for the School of Food Science, a unit which is unique to our two institutions and important to the food industries of Washington and Idaho. We look forward to working with Denise in establishing the School as a leader in teaching, research and outreach in Food Science, regionally and nationally.
Please join us in welcoming Denise and Jeff back to the Palouse.
Annual SCRI Sweet Cherry Research Team Meeting
The Annual Meeting for the SCRI Sweet Cherry Research Team will be held Nov. 18-19, 2010 in Hood River, Ore. The meeting will feature collaborative orchard tours in The Dalles/Hood River area, a year one research summary from all PI’s, an advisory committee meeting and strategic planning session.
Location: Hood River Inn, Hood River Oregon http://www.hoodriverinn.com.
To RSVP for the meeting, or for more information, please contact Tracie Arnold at tracie.arnold@wsu.edu.
WSU’s Palouse Ridge Golf Club Named Nation’s Third Best College Course
Palouse Ridge Golf Club at Washington State University has been ranked among the top three campus golf courses in America by “Golfweek” magazine.
Published earlier this week, the golfing magazine’s most recent Best Campus Courses list features 30 courses in 22 states. It names WSU’s Palouse Ridge Course the nation’s third best collegiate course, behind only The Course at Yale, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., deemed the nation’s top collegiate course; and Taconic Golf Club, Williams College, Williamstown, Mass., named the nation’s second best.
Palouse Ridge was also one of only three PAC-10 university courses named to Golfweek list. Stanford Golf Course, Stanford University, was selected as the nation’s fifth best collegiate course. ASU Karsten Golf Course, Arizona State University, made the list at 29th.
To qualify for the Golfweek’s Best Campus Courses list, a course must be part of a school’s recreational life and provide preferential access to students, faculty and alumni.
For more information on the Palouse Ridge Golf Club, visit http://www.palouseridge.com.
Retirement Seminars
Thinking about Retirement? Human Resource Services (HRS) will be conducting pre-retirement seminars to assist you with retirement planning. Topics include:
- Retiree Medical, Dental, and Life Insurance Enrollment Process;
- Medicare and Social Security;
- Voluntary Employee’s Benefit Association Medical Expense Plan (VEBA MEP);
- Annual Leave Payment;
- Voluntary Investment Programs;
- Retirement Income, and
- Retirement Supplementation for WSURP participants.
The seminars are open to all Department of Retirement System and WSU Retirement Plan participants. You do not need to register to attend.
Each seminar will be held in the Lighty Student Services building, room 403 at 11 a.m., lasting approximately one hour on the following dates:
- Wed., Oct. 13
- Wed., Nov. 10
- Wed., Dec. 8
Additional seminars will be held at the following:
- Mon., Sept. 27 9:00 a.m. Lighty 403
- Mon., Oct. 18 1:00 p.m. Lighty 401
Individual meetings with a WSU HRS Retirement Specialist can be made after attending one of the seminars if needed. You are also encouraged to work directly with TIAA-CREF and DRS for your individual retirement/pension options.
For questions please contact Human Resource Services at 335-4521 or hrs@wsu.edu.
WSU-Mount Vernon to Host Artisan Bread Kneading Conference
In collaboration with the highly successful Artisan Bread Kneading Conference held each year in Maine a sole west coast venue has been added. The conference draws artisan bakers and small farmers from around the country to discuss the challenges and benefits of local flours and breads. Vermont-based King Arthur Flour has agreed to be a major sponsor of the Mount Vernon event, which will occur in Sept. of 2011.
Surf Report
Did you go to Fall Festival? If you did, you might be in this short video produced by MNEC http://bit.ly/cToaxb.
Ever wondered about all the hard-working people who help make all the science at WSU possible? Check out “Hard Science Is Hard Work” for a look at how the farm and maintenance crew at the IAREC in Prosser keep the science growing: http://bit.ly/aeyRU0.
The new issue of Connections is now online at http://bit.ly/9vFVUI. Featuring Vitruvian Butch, this issue’s feature package is called “Living Well by Design” and focuses on the design departments in CAHNRS.
Kudos
Dr. Gary Chastagner, professor of plant pathology and based at the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center, was awarded the National Christmas Tree Association Outstanding Service Award at this year’s NCTA Conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Dr. Chastagner is a world-renowned expert on diseases of Christmas trees and ornamental bulb crops. His research and extension activities are in the areas of epidemiology and management of Phytophthora ramorum in nurseries, Christmas trees and forests; the etiology, epidemiology and management of ornamental bulb crop and Christmas tree diseases; and factors that affect the postharvest quality of Christmas trees.
Dr. Gary Grove, professor of plant pathology based at the Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser, was awarded the CAHNRS Meritorious Service Award by Dean Dr. Dan Bernardo. The award was presented to Dr. Grove at the IAREC faculty meeting in Prosser on September 7. This award was given to Dr. Grove in recognition of his service to and leadership of the AgWeatherNet from 2006 to 2010. In his four years as the director of AWN, he converted the hardware to commercially available equipment and expanded the network from 60 to 133 weather stations throughout Washington. The stations provide real-time weather and forecast data and various pest models and disease forecasts. The AWN website receives 400,000 visits per month and uses “push” technologies to deliver weather and pest alerts to smart phones. Besides his exemplary service in his administrative role as the AWN director, Dr. Grove is a leader in the biology and epidemiology of powdery mildews and other diseases of fruit crops. He has received over $3.5 million in competitive and noncompetitive funding. He has published 53 peer reviewed papers, 41 extension bulletins, 33 web pages, 8 educational videos, 7 disease or pesticide data bases, 9 book chapters, 110 technical publications, 13 popular press articles, and given more than 330 invited presentations. His extension and research activities have lead to 73 percent decrease in fungicide use in Washington vineyards and significant reductions in cherries.
Associate Professor Il-Hyung Cho is working as a visiting professor with the Main Bioinformatics Lab in the department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture through the current academic year. Dr. Cho is on sabbatical from the department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Saginaw Valley State University, Saginaw, Michigan.