November 2014

Volume V - Issue IV

Dan's Observations

Dan ArpHomecoming 2014

Homecoming 2014 offered us the chance to celebrate the outstanding students, faculty, alumni, and friends of the College of Agricultural Sciences. So much of the college’s impact is due to the achievements of these individuals.

In celebration, I hosted a Dean’s Dinner, the first in many years. It felt like a family Thanksgiving, as we gathered in the stately Memorial Union lounge, warmed by two fireplaces and decorated with the season’s harvest. The dinner itself was a celebration of Oregon-grown specialties—beef, vegetables, hazelnuts, pears, berries—many produced by our family of supporters and stakeholders.

The College is committed to research and teaching of all aspects of food production, from the first roots put down into healthy soil to the value that is added to agricultural products by processing, fermentation, and ingenuity. Food is the handshake between urban and rural Oregon; it brings people together. 

The Dean’s Dinner brought together many people—growers, researchers, community leaders, and students—who will help the College of Agricultural Sciences meet the challenges of the future:

• with collaboration, because no single organization can solve all the problems;
• with integration, because the whole is always greater than the sum of the parts;
• and with innovation, because the future will be built with new ideas.

Please take a moment to view the video that was created for the Dean's Dinner. This video portrait introduces the College and its outstanding award winners of 2014. https://media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/0_o8c9au4a

Thank you all for your support and partnership in this important work.

-Dan

Recent News

Recent NewsCAS Annual report to the Provost

This report provides a point-in-time snapshot of the outstanding work of faculty, staff, and administrators, and the College’s contributions to students, residents, and stakeholders regionally, nationally, and globally.

In 2014, QS World University Rankings ranked OSU 7th in the world among more than 200 institutions engaged in agriculture and forestry teaching and research. This speaks to the high level of professionalism of our faculty and to the vision and transformative nature of the College to provide research and education that meets global demands in the information age.
(Read more...)

Jay Noller,  new head Crop and Soil SciencesJay Noller named head of Crop and Soil Science

(by Daniel Robison)  Oregon State University has selected Jay Noller as the new department head of Crop and Soil Science in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Noller, a longtime landscape soils professor in the department, starts his new position on Oct. 1. He succeeds Russ Karow, who is retiring and served as department head since 2001.

“Our research into soil and crops will continue to have a common theme: food. Improving food, creating sustainable conditions to produce food and supporting stakeholders in agriculture and natural resources,” said Noller, who previously served as associate department head under Karow.

(Read more...)

Katie Gaebel, Experiential Learning CoordinatorKatie Gaebel named CAS Experiential Learning Coordinator

Katie Gaebel has joined the CAS Academic Programs Office as experiential learning coordinator.  She received her Ph.D. in Education from Ohio State University in 2012.

Gaebel was an assistant professor of education at Central College in Iowa, where she taught courses on socio-cultural foundations and multicultural education.  Gaebel developed and implemented numerous experiential learning opportunities while in Iowa, including short-term experiences in Puerto Rico for pre-service teachers and a grant-funded workforce internship project for Burmese refugee youth. 

She served on the board of Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy and Resource Center (EMBARC), where she was also a co-researcher on the EMBARC Voices Oral History Project. 

Her office is in 208 Bexell Hall.

Valtcho JeliazkovValtcho Jeliazkov named CBARC Director

(By Daniel Robison) A crop scientist with international experience has been named as director of Oregon State University’s Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center in Pendleton.

Valtcho Jeliazkov began his career studying plant nutrition in his native Bulgaria and has done research and teaching at the University of Massachusetts, Mississippi State University and Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.

Jeliazkov has been a director of the University of Wyoming’s Sheridan Research and Extension Center where his focus is dryland cropping systems. His research includes work with wheat/fallow and wheat/oilseed rotations, cereal forage variety trials, and... (Read more...)

Bexell HallWe're temporarily in Bexell Hall

The College of Agricultural Sciences and related units have moved from Strand Agriculture Hall to Bexell Hall.  Units include:  Office of the Dean, CAS Academic Programs, Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station, Art About Agriculture, Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Program, Department of Agricultural Education and Agricultural Sciences, Agriculture in the Classroom, and the Oregon FFA Association.  Phone numbers remain the same.

The relocation is for one year while Strand Agriculture Hall is being seismically upgraded and renovated.  Expected return to Strand is Fall 2015.

OSU Update

Ed RayPresident Ray outlines a decade of accomplishments, new challenges for OSU

The changes at Oregon State University effected over the last 10 years are nothing short of extraordinary. We have been blessed by exceptional leadership in key areas, including the Faculty Senate and academic and support units. Our collective commitment and discipline to create and implement strategic planning throughout this period, now reflected in SP3.0, have been essential to our success. But our faculty, staff and students remain the lifeblood of this community, and without their talents and hard work, we simply would not have realized the positive change we see around us.

Over the last 10 years, enrollment in Corvallis has increased by 37.5% to 25,114, and our on-line enrollment of degree-seeking students has increased by 374.6% to 4,248.

(Read more...)

Siva KolluriBusinesses and government agencies increase Oregon State research funding in 2014

(by Nick Houtman) Oregon State University’s growing research enterprise achieved its second highest level of funding support ever, in the fiscal year that ended June 30 – $285 million in total grants and contracts to support work in public health, the environment, advanced engineering and projects to help develop Oregon’s and the nation’s economy.

In 2010 OSU received $288 million, a total boosted by a $36 million shot-in-the-arm from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). “If you take that one-time funding out of the picture, this past year was our best,” said Ron Adams, interim vice president for research at Oregon State.  (Read more...) (Photo of Siva Kolluri by Tiffany Woods)

Our Best

Our Best2014 CAS faculty and staff awards

Outstanding faculty and staff were honored during the CAS Faculty and Staff Awards Luncheon, held on October 8th, 2014 in the CH2M Hill Alumni Center.  Recipients were:

CAS Classified Employee Award  - Leighann Auer, Fisheries and Wildlife

CAS Professional Faculty Award - Jeff Clawson, Food Science and Technology

(See complete list)

Beaver Classic Cheese 1st placeBeaver Classic "The Peak" cheese wins first prize at American Cheese Society

Congratulations to Robin Frojen and the Beaver Classic student crew on capturing First Prize for The Peak in the mozzarella category at the annual American Cheese Society meeting in Sacramento, CA!   Oregon State University submitted 3 cheeses in a total of 1,700 entries in the competition.
 
The Peak is one of the new cheese varieties that the Oregon State Creamery has been selling at the Corvallis farmers market.  It is available on our web site and at football games this fall.

The new OSU Beaver Classic Online Cheese Market featuring "The Original" plus three new varieties, "The Peak", "The Hop" and Swiss is now shipping orders.  All new varieties are also available smoked. 

Visit Website 

 

 

Our Best2014 University awards

Seven CAS faculty were given OSU's highest awards at University Day on September 18th. Honored were:

Bernadine Strik/Joey Spatafora-Co recipients of OSU Distinguished Professor
Janine Trempy w/COS: Bressler Senior Faculty Teaching Award
Paul Jepson: International Service Award
Garry Stephenson: Outreach & Engagement Award
Lowell Fausett: OSU Professional Faculty Excellence Award
Carolyn Breece: Outstanding Faculty Research Assistant Award. (Read more...)

Program Highlight:  Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center

Program HighlightAbout Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center

The professional staff of OSU’s Klamath Basin Research & Extension Center (KBREC) are OSU faculty in the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences and College of Family and Community Health who conduct research, teach skills, and help solve problems relevant to Klamath County and our region. Our research is for the economic, social, and environmental benefit of Oregonians and others throughout the world. Our mission is to be a trusted resource for research and education working cooperatively with the communities of Klamath County resulting in healthy people, economies and environments. Facebook   Website

StudentsFarming where water is a managed resource

(OAP Magazine)  The Klamath Basin is defined by the dynamics of water and soil, and by the communities that share these resources. Since the 1930s, the Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center (KBREC) has been a steady presence in a complex landscape of reclaimed soils, challenging weather, and limited water supply. 

 

Learn more...

 

Willie RiggsOSU STORIES  Willie Riggs:  Creating Solutions

Willie Riggs is the Oregon State University Regional Administrator for Klamath, Lake and Harney Counties and Director of the Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center. It’s a long job title, but one that reflects the wide scope of OSU Extension in the region.

He says working for a land grant university allows him to be a neutral third party within the community and help people and organizations to solve problems. In this part of Southern Oregon, water quantity and quality are the biggest issues.

“Klamath County has a natural-resources-based economy, and without water to support it, there’s a direct impact on the farmers and ranchers,” Riggs says. “And from there, it affects everybody.”

The area has a history of drought, along with decades of conflicts over water rights between conservationists, tribes, farmers, fishermen and state and federal agencies. The 2010 Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement — a comprehensive attempt to balance agricultural, environmental and community water needs — still needs Congressional funding to be fully implemented.  

(Read more...)

Richard Roseberg, Russian Dandelion researchThe Future of Flying:  New plant materials help keep planes aloft and land them safely

(By Rachel Beck and Peg Herring) At the edge of town in Klamath Falls, above a landscape of fertile fields and wetlands, the roar of military jets punctuates the sky.

Jet fuel keeps those planes aloft. And rubber tires land them safely on the ground.

Both jet fuel and natural rubber have significant strategic value to national defense, and that’s why the U.S. government is eager to find a domestic source for these materials. Part of that search is happening right across the street from the Air National Guard’s runway, at the Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center, Oregon State University agronomist Rich Roseberg is leading the study of Russian dandelion. But Roseberg’s not the first person to notice the potential value of such a humble plant.  Josef Stalin understood the importance of securing a domestic supply of rubber...

(Read more...)

Students

John Buckhouse, Emeritus ProfessorHonors Link:  Ecosystem Exploration

(by Jessica Kibler)  Each fall, a University Honors College (UHC) student cohort packs up sleeping bags, tents, and rain gear and leaves Corvallis to explore oft-ignored areas of the Pacific Northwest. Led by John Buckhouse, emeritus professor in the Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences, and his team of hand-picked experts, the students learn about the ecosystems of each location they visit. And while they’re out analyzing rock formations and hearing about the environmental benefits of livestock grazing with their peers, they’re also finding their place within the UHC’s own diverse ecosystem.

(Read more and see stunning photographs...)

Rozalyn PatrickRozalyn Patrick Blog:  From Oregon to Minnesota

It has been four weeks since I arrived in Minneapolis and time has flown by. I am already a month through my internship and CHS will be having their big intern wrap up event in two weeks. However, I am staying a month later than most interns because Oregon State University does not start school until late September. I have made tremendous headway with my project and am excited to say the changes I made to the terminal log of information has been implemented. Visual charts were one of the main additions to the log. These visuals communicate information rapidly and are more user friendly than numbers or sentences. The challenge my advisor had proposed to me was to find a way to use the information we already have to reduce questions and provide answers quicker. This will reduce the amount of time traders have to take away from trading to ask the operations manager questions and give more information faster, bettering their trades. Interning at CHS has been rewarding because they do not just assign you medial tasks, but provide you the opportunity to work on something that will outlive your time here and make a meaningful impact. So the excel battles, blood, sweat and tears have been worth it. Ok I am that’s a little dramatic there has been no blood or tears but considering the humidity there has been sweat.

(Read blog...)

Millett Syngenta awardLinda Millet receives UG grand prize of Syngenta Agricultural Scholarship awards

Linda Millett, (right) an ECampus student in Horticulture, won a scholarship essay contest totaling $7000 for her essay focused on the need for more classroom-based programs to encourage environmental awareness.  

Syngenta called for entries from college students who desire to inform the public about current agricultural issues, all in an effort to identify tomorrow’s agriculture industry leaders. Students enrolled as of spring 2014 in an accredited agriculture program at a U.S. land grant university were eligible to apply.

(Read more...)

Research

Powell AmorantiBiotechnology in Agriculture

A College of Agricultural Sciences faculty committee drafted a series of 5 white papers as a service to the public for providing information from scientific perspectives to help inform conversations about genetically engineered organisms in agriculture. (See website)

DNA

Defining GE organisms in agriculture
How human values affect views on GE crops
Food safety and regulations for GE organisms in agriculture
Assessing the net social benefit of GE organisms in agriculture
Implications of gene flow and natural selection for GE crops  

Charles Coronella, University of Nevada, RenoSun Grant:  Research aims to help dairy farmers generate sustainable energy

(by University of Nevada, Reno) "On campus, we are working with researchers in CABNR, Cooperative Extension specialists, and researchers in the College of Engineering," said Charles Coronella, principal investigator of the project. "This type of collaboration is possible only at a land grant university." The research underway at the University of Nevada, Reno could help dairy farmers with two of their biggest economic challenges: cost of manure disposal and cost of electricity. Coronella, associate professor of chemical engineering, estimates a typical dairy farm could generate twice the electricity it consumes in a year by converting manure to power.  (Read more...)

Hazelnut researchResearch in a nutshell

Oregon grows 99 percent of the U.S. Hazelnut crop, but more than 20 years ago, the future looked bleak. A disease called eastern filbert blight was threatening to devastate orchards. OSU researchers set to work, crossbreeding tree varieties for resistance to it. They've since released 18 cultivars that are resistant. Today, thousands of acres in Oregon are planted with varieties developed by OSU. (Watch video).

Art About Agriculture News

Hamblin Honey

(By Shelley Curtis) To celebrate the Willamette river valley and basin, one of North America’s most fertile agricultural regions, the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State
University is organizing its 33rd annual art exhibition for 2015: This Everlasting
Valley: Willamette River Valley and Basin. This tour show, featuring agriculture and
natural resources in Oregon’s Willamette river valley, completes the trio of This
Everlasting Valley art exhibitions.

The initial presentation in 2005, focused respectively on the upper Willamette
Valley, from the river’s source waters to Albany; and the second, in 2009, focused
on the middle Willamette Valley — Albany to Newberg. The lower Willamette
River basin, from Newberg to the Columba River, sets the geographic boundaries
for this exhibition.  (Read more...)

The College of Agricultural Sciences receives two special grants from The Ford Family Foundation

Jay Noller

The College of Agricultural Sciences acquired two works of art for its Art About Agriculture Permanent Collection, through two special grants from The Ford Family Foundation’s 2014 Art Acquisitions Program. The Oregon Arts Commission manages the Art Acquisitions Fund for The Ford Family Foundation.

Jay Noller has studied Oregon Jory soil as both an artist and scientist, and incorporates this – Oregon’s official – soil into his painting “Blacklock I,” a two-dimensional mixed media work painted to resemble an 8 feet by 2 feet soil profile. The College acquired this painting with its Acquisitions grant funds, leveraged with funds from the Brenda and Gordon Hood Art About Agriculture Endowment. Noller’s art is contiguous with earth art practices set into motion by twentieth century earth and Land artists including Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer, Maya Ying Lin, and others. Noller’s paintings are excellent examples of how twenty-first century artists build upon multilayered ideas in the process of conceptualizing and creating earth art.

Phyllis Yes, artist

Phyllis Yes is widely known in Oregon and beyond as a distinguished artist and educator.

Her painting “From Pike Place Market,” a 5 feet by 4 feet acrylic on canvas, is a masterful work of exceptional draftsmanship and color theory tied historically to lush floral Still Lifes by 18th century Northern European painters. The College acquired Yes’s painting with its Acquisitions grant funds, leveraged with funds from the Margaret Hogg Memorial Art About Agriculture Endowment. This contemporary perception of the object in its environment has relevance to practices of appreciating Nature’s diversity and of humans bringing the outside inside. Yes’s assorted bouquet in full bloom has relevance to the Pacific Northwest’s heritage and tradition of Native plant knowledge and use, in addition to Oregon’s international leadership history in horticulture and ornamental plant industries for more than a century.

 

Multimedia Connections

Multimedia ConnectionsHAREC Parade Truck

A visible symbol of OSU and the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center is the parade-ready truck seen at local county fairs and around Hermiston.  It is a 1943 Dodge truck painted orange The Beaver fight song may be heard through the PA system and the emblem on the door is the 1942 version of "Oregon State College".

(Read more...) Grab more from HAREC Facebook page

Oregon's Agricultural Progress Newsletters and Magazines

Oregon's Agricultural Progress

Terra Magazine

NEW!  Terra online newsletter

MultimediaFacebook Pages

College of Agricultural Sciences
Biological and Ecological Engineering
OSU Beavers
OSU Extension
OSU Agricultural Executive Council
OSU Department of Horticulture
Central Oregon Agricultural Research Center
OSU Superfund Research Program

Fisheries and Wildlife

Alumni, Donors and Friends

2014 Diamond Pioneers2014 Diamond Pioneers honored

The College hosted lunch on October 15th to recognize the significant contributions made by friends and colleagues to agriculture and related areas in their careers.  Honored this year were:  

Floyd Bodyfelt, Corvallis; Don Bowers, Harrisburg; Lorena Bowers, Harrisburg; Larry Coppock, Adams; Roger DeJager, Jefferson; Gwil Evans, Corvallis; Rudy Fenk, Tillamook; Carl Hill, Nyssa; Al May, Dallas; Lou Wettstein, Ontario and Martin Zimmerman, Dallas.

The registry was established in March 1983 when the College observed it's 75th anniversary.

In Memoriam

Faculty and StaffHarry Mack

Dr Harry Mack, Professor of Horticulture from 1955 to 1990 passed away July 28th.  He was appointed Instructor of Horticulture in 1955 to conduct research to improve production and management of vegetable crops in the Willamette Valley. His research emphasized fertilizers and plant nutrition, effects of environment on growth and development, irrigation and moisture stress, plant population density and arrangement, and physiology. Dr. Mack received his B.S. (1950) and M.S. (1952) from Texas A&M and Ph.D. from Oregon State in 1955. Dr. Mack teamed with Drs. Baggett and Frazier to develop mechanized vegetable cropping systems for snap beans, sweet corn, and other crops. Harry taught the vegetable production and vegetable handling and distribution courses during his career at OSU. He retired in 1990 having received several awards for meritorious service.

Don HorneckDon Horneck

Dr. Donald "Don" Horneck of Irrigon, OR died September 28th in Hermiston.  He was an Extension Agronomist Professor at the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center.  Don was raised and attended schools in Chicago, Illinois, graduating in 1976. He then attended Monmouth College in Monmouth Illinois, graduating with a bachelor degree. Don was united in marriage to Victoria Birk on May 23, 1981 in Geneva, Illinois. He attended the University of Illinois where he earned his masters before earning his Ph.D from Oregon State University in 1993. They moved to Hermiston, Oregon in 1994 and Don worked for Agrisource for a time before going to work at the OSU Hermiston Extension office.

George BaileyGeorge Bailey

George Bailey, a distinguished professor emeritus in the OSU Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, and an international expert on carcinogenesis and cancer prevention through dietary agents, died Oct. 20 following a serious illness. He was 73.

Bailey, also a principal investigator with the Linus Pauling Institute at OSU, did pioneering work on aflatoxins, a common cause of liver cancer that kills millions of people in China and Africa. He has studied chlorophyll as an inexpensive way to reduce DNA damage caused by aflatoxins, and also indole-3-carbinol for the prevention of breast cancer.  (Read more...)

The College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University is Oregon's principal source of knowledge relating to agricultural and food systems, and a major source of knowledge regarding environmental quality, natural resources, life sciences, and rural economies and communities worldwide. The College provides undergraduate and graduate education leading to baccalaureate and graduate degrees, and extended education programs throughout Oregon and beyond. Its research programs create knowledge to solve problems and to build a knowledge base for the future. It is a source of information and expertise in integrating and applying knowledge with benefits that are felt in domestic and international settings.

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