Dr. Donald McDowell, the SAES’s interim dean, will be leading the first faculty meeting for 2010 on Thursday, Jan. 28. The meeting will convene in the Webb Hall Auditorium at 11 a.m., and last until 12:30 p.m. Among the topics on the agenda are USDA Capacity Building Grants, the undergraduate research program and the Center of Excellence for Post-Harvest Technologies in Kannapolis.

SAES faculty and staff with offices at the C. H. Moore Agricultural Research Station now have new phone numbers. There will be a 60-day transition period during which calls placed to the old numbers with 334 prefixes will transfer seamlessly to the new numbers. As of April 1, however, calls to the old 334 numbers at Moore will not transfer automatically, and callers will instead be greeted with a recording alerting them to the change in phone number. Members of the SAES faculty and staff in other buildings are strongly encouraged to be the earliest adaptors. Especially if you make calls to colleagues at Moore on a regular basis, please switch your speed dialing settings and update your address books to the new numbers now. Don’t wait until time’s of the essence to learn the a new phone number. The SAES’s online phone directory has been updated to list all the changed phone numbers.

Four candidates hoping to join the Food and Nutritional Sciences faculty in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences have been invited to present seminars to the SAES faculty and staff. These seminars are open to all SAES faculty and staff and will be held in Room 104 of Benbow Hall at 2 p.m. The candidates presenting seminars are:
• Dr. Yi-Lang Pan on Wednesday, Jan. 27
• Dr. Janak R. Khatiwada on Wednesday, Feb. 3
• Dr. Danfeng Song on Monday, Feb. 8
• Ms. Pameka H. McGee on Wednesday, Feb. 10

Dr. Pan is currently a research assistant at Florida International University; Dr. Janak R. Khatiwada is a postdoctoral research fellow and a research associate at Alabama A&M University; Dr. Song is a research assistant with the SAES’s FCS Department; and Dr McGee is an adjunct instructor with the SAES FCS Department. 

The application deadline for the USDA 1890 Scholars Program for the 2010-11 academic year is Tuesday, Feb. 1. USDA’s 1890 Scholars Program is an enticing opportunity for high-caliber high school seniors, and this year marks the first time that students currently enrolled at an 1890 land-grant are also eligible to apply. USDA pays full tuition and fees for 1890 scholars to attend one of the 1890 Institutions, and scholars also receive employment (and employee benefits) with a USDA agency during each of their four years working toward a bachelor's degree.

If you know of high-achieving high school seniors who might be interested, encourage them to check out the program promptly. And if you know any current SAES high-achieving students, pass along the hot tip that for the first time in the program’s history students already enrolled at an 1890 are eligible to apply. Among the application requirements for current college students are two letters of recommendation from a department head, dean, university vice president or a faculty member who taught the applicant. College students applying must also submit an essay of 500-800 words describing their interest in USDA, how the scholarship will impact their future as a public servant, and experience and perceptions about agriculture, food, and natural resource sciences.

Completed applications from high school and SAES students for the USDA 1890 Scholars Program at A&T should be submitted to A&T’s USDA Liaison Officer, Larry Hartsfield, whose mailing address is: 107 B.C. Webb Hall, 1601 East Market Street. Greensboro, NC 27411.

A&T's Office of Admissions and Enrollment Management has five February dates remaining in its annual series of "Aggie Nite" recruitment receptions for high school students. Research Triangle Park on Feb. 2; Roanoke Rapids on Feb. 8; Greenville on Feb. 9; Fayetteville on Feb. 16; and Atlanta Feb. 25. Starting time for all Aggie Nites is 7 p.m. If you know of high school students who might be interested in attending an “Aggie Nite,” direct their attention to the online registration form ... and let them know also that all the SAES undergraduate degree programs are listed at the “Select Major” pull down on the registration Web page.

Five SAES seniors in the Landscape Architecture Program’s Advanced Design Studio course —  Danielle Mittman, Hilerie Gelenbeck, James Walls, Jana Miller, and Lashanda Jones — completed a semester-long project wrapped around a conceptual master plan for a 400-acre, mixed-use development south of Asheboro.  “This is an in-depth study of multiple issues and complex problems in landscape architecture,” said course instructor, Paul Kron. 

The students augmented many hours of studio time with a listening session to get input from area residents. What they heard encouraged them to focus on sustainable, environmentally-friendly designs, to include a wide mixture of uses and housing options, and to make the proposed “mixed-use village” as pedestrian- and bicycle - and transit-friendly as possible.  In addition to contributions to the group effort, each student was also responsible for design of a specific detail (senior center, soccer fields, shops, a greenway, storm water runoff, etc.) and students worked with municipal employees, developers and volunteers who were well-versed in the nuances of individual projects.

The National Institute for Farm Safety (NIFS) will host its 2010 annual conference in Wilmington June 27 - July 1.  Abstracts describing presentation proposals for technical papers, posters, educational displays and reports on research in progress on topics involving agricultural safety and health promotion may be submitted electronically, and the submission deadline is Jan. 29. Health and safety professionals working in forestry- and fishery-related initiatives will be attending the conference along with health and safety professionals working primarily in agriculture. Conference headquarters will be the Hilton Wilmington Riverside. 

The official hosts for the 2010 National Institute for Farm Safety Conference are the North Carolina Agromedicine Institute, the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service and Iowa's Center for Agricultural Safety and Health. The North Carolina Agromedicine Institute was established in 1999 by the UNC Board of Governors with East Carolina, North Carolina State, and North Carolina A&T as constituent universities. The Agromedicine Institute’s mission is to promote health and safety in agriculture and other natural-resources based industries. The Agromedicine Institute also oversees funding for research and Extension outreaches. The institute's administrative offices are located on the East Carolina campus in Greenville.

The application deadline for an eight-week (June 5 - July 31) summer enrichment program for male African Americans who are now college sophomores is Friday, Jan. 29. The program, coordinated by the Institute for Responsible Citizenship, brings students to Washington for course work in economics and other academic disciplines, and internships with government agencies and firms in the private sector that will prepare them for careers in business, education,  government, public policy and other fields. Selected students receive housing and pay in exchange for their work as interns. Although there is no fixed GPA requirement, recent median GPAs have been 3.65. Volunteer work, athletics and involvement with campus organizations are also weighed in the selection process. Students are required to commit to a second eight-week internship and study following their junior years, in addition to the eight-week program following sophomore year.

Your payroll deposit receipt should arrive in your mailbox the last week of January. Before you file it away, take a look to see if all the deductions are correct, especially if you made changes in your insurance coverage during the NC Flex enrollment window last fall. If you added, canceled or changed insurance coverage during the NC Flex enrollment period last fall, those changes should be reflected on the Jan. 31 paycheck. If the deductions aren't right then there's a chance you don't have the insurance coverage you want, and it can be difficult to set the record straight if you wait until you need to file a claim.

An SAES food scientist, Dr. Salam Ibrahim, was part of a team of researchers that had findings accepted for publication in The Journal of Dairy Science. The study evaluated milk production, and milk fat and milk protein percentages in Holstein cows whose diets were supplemented with DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) micro algae. The research is a response to an increase in fish oil demand at the same time as dwindling fishery yields are reducing the global supply of marine feedstuffs. Joining Ibrahim on the team of authors of “The effect of substituting fish oil in dairy cow diets with docosahexaenoic acid-micro algae on milk composition and fatty acids profile” were Drs. A. A. AbuGhazaleh and R. B. Potu of Southern Illinois University.

The North Carolina Agritourism Networking Association (ANA) will be having its fourth annual conference Feb. 18 and 19 in Greenville, and the early bird discount cutoff for registrations is Feb 1. The registration fee before the first of February is $75 for non-members; $85 after the cutoff. The ANA conference program this year is replete with programs for Extension agents and professionals with other farm support organizations, as well farmers and landowners already involved in Pick-Your-Own vegetable marketing, vineyards, Christmas tree farms and other agritourism endeavors.

North Carolina Tomato Growers Association’s 2010 winter conference and trade show will be Feb. 17 and 18 at the Crowne Plaza Resort in Asheville. The registration fee is $20 before Feb. 5, and $25 after that cutoff. In addition to a full slate of programs addressing production issues and pest control issues facing tomato growers, there will also be presentations introducing tomatillo and pepper production, and insect control in sweet corn.

Working in cooperation with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, a not-for-profit association of U.S. Italian restaurateurs has established a scholarship program that will send six culinary and food sciences students to Tuscany from May 25 to June 1. To be eligible, applicants must be undergraduates enrolled full time and not on schedule to graduate before May of 2011. Among other requirements, applicants must also have at least two years of culinary experience or viticulture training. In keeping with the commitment of the funding agency — Gruppo Ristoratori Italiani — to increasing public appreciation of authentic Italian cuisine, applicants will also be asked to submit 750 word essays that touch on both their personal knowledge of Italian cuisine, and what their plans will be for disseminating what they’ve learned about authentic Italian cuisine following a stay in Tuscany.

Complete details on scholarship program stipulations are available along with the application at the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation website. The application deadline is Feb. 10.

Undergraduate students with an interest in sustainable agriculture practices and production systems  have the month of February to look into the summer internship program at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems' 2,245-acre research farm near Goldsboro. During their eight-week (June 7 – July 30) internships, students will work closely with a CEFS faculty mentor on individual research projects.

The SAES, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State, and the N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Sciences operate the CEFS jointly. Among its research units is a Small Farm Center, and the CEFS also has swine, dairy, organic cropping, farm systems and pasture-based beef units devoted to innovative practices for advancing sustainable food and farming. Completed applications should be returned to Lisa Forehand at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (Attn: Lisa Forehand, Box 7609 – NCSU, Raleigh, NC 27695) by March 1. Interns will receive assistance in finding housing for their eight-week stays in Goldsboro.

USDA will be accepting funding proposals for training and technical assistance for socially disadvantaged farmers until March 1. The funding program's objectives are to provide educational and technical assistance that nurture land ownership and equitable participation in USDA programs among farmers without the social and economic networking skills that have become basic groundwork for agricultural enterprises. The program traditionally supports a wide range of assistance activities in farm management and financial management, marketing and sustainable production practices.

February is Black History Month — a time to communicate the contributions of African Americans to agriculture, natural resources management, and family and consumer sciences as well as other academic disciplines. For an online look at the accomplishments of some African American scientists and inventors whose contributions are especially SAES-relevant, take a look at:
• Jan Matzeliger came up with the machinery for mass-produced (and affordable) shoes.
• Lloyd Hall, an African American inventor with more than 100 patents,  is credited with many of the meat curing products and preservatives used in food processing industries today.
• Thomas L. Jennings was the first African American to hold a patent. He obtained it in 1821 for a dry cleaning process.
• Roger Arliner Young and Charles Henry Turner are among 10 individuals highlighted on TeacherVision’s tribute to African American scientists. Young was the first female African-American to receive a doctorate degree in both zoology and biology. Turner’s experiments proving that honey bees could see colors and other research work involving insects has become such a foundation for animal behavior studies that in France a type of ant movement is known as “Turner circling” to honor the man who discovered it.
• The Center for Environmental Justice Web site devoted to African American Environmental Heroes. The listing includes economist Walter Williams, whose work is often involved with agricultural economics, and John W. Mitchell, director of the A&T’s Extension Program in the 1940s.
• The Black Collegian Online’s listing of great African Americans includes Mary McLeod Bethune, Benjamin Banneker, and Percy Julian. Bethune, founder of a girls’ school in Florida that would become Bethune Cookman, distinguished herself on the national level by coordinating a youth development program during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Banneker is best known as the African American who made the first clock produced entirely in America. He grew up on a family farm and his innovations there included an irrigation system that kept tobacco and other crops growing on the Banneker farm while dry spells wiped out crops on neighboring farms. Julian, the African American chemist who would go on to develop synthetic hydrocortisone, began his research working with soybean products.
• Augustus Jackson is sometimes called the inventor of ice cream. That’s not entirely accurate since products similar to ice cream have been around for centuries. In 1830, Jackson did do a lot to improve and popularize ice cream when he came up with a production method far better than any others, and also came up with several new flavors of ice cream.