Most of the seminars in the NRED series are on Thursdays in Carver and begin at noon. Featured speakers include postdoctoral research associates and guest scholars not affiliated with A&T, as well as NRED teaching and research faculty. Seminar topics will include all areas of research carried out in the NRED and related areas. Many topics will open up lines of collaboration with other departments, the private sector and other partners.  ]]> http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/10/next-seminar-to-cover-environm.html http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/10/next-seminar-to-cover-environm.html Academic Departments Natural Resources and Environmental Design Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:58:08 -0500 A team of SAES researchers has had its evaluation of the potential for using sorghum inoculated with mushrooms to induce molting in laying chickens published in the journal Poultry Science. Their research into an alternative to withholding feed to induce molting in poultry has significant potential for egg production. Research faculty on the team that submitted the A&T-based study of “Utilizing fungus myceliated grain for molt induction and performance in commercial laying hens” are Drs. Willie Willis, Omon Isikhuemhen and John Allen. Filling out the team were Andrea Byers and Kristen King, SAES research assistants, and a former Animal Sciences student now at the College of Veterinary Medicine at N.C. State, Carla Thomas. Thomas was a member of the project team while taking undergraduate courses taught by Willis.]]> http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/10/egg-production-research-gets-f.html http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/10/egg-production-research-gets-f.html Academic Departments Animal Sciences Natural Resources and Environmental Design Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:55:39 -0500 Dr. Manuel R. Reyes of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design is working with colleagues at Texas A&M and N.C. State to coordinate a comprehensive SWAT (Soil & Water Assessment Tool) training program for water quality professionals in November. There will be a two-day training program for those unfamiliar with the watershed modeling (which predicts the impact of land-use practices on water runoff and sedimentation) at Sockwell Hall Nov. 16 and 17. Then on Nov. 19 and 20, there will be training for more advanced SWAT users at McKimmon Center on the N. C. State campus. Texas A&M is hosting the online registration form on its website.]]> http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/10/swat-slots-remain.html http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/10/swat-slots-remain.html Academic Departments Natural Resources and Environmental Design Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:51:10 -0500 Dr. Manuel Reyes coordinated a recent visit to the SAES by delegations from Bogor Agricultural University in Indonesia and Vietnam's Nong Lam University. The SAES signed memorandums of understanding with both universities in 2007, and faculty and student exchange agreements are being finalized. SAES faculty and administrators who met with the representatives from the Indonesian and Vietnamese universities were (back row from left) Dr. Louis E. N. Jackai, chair of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design; Dr. M. Ray McKinnie, associate dean and administrator for The Cooperative Extension Program at A&T; Reyes: and Dr. Donald McDowell, the SAES's interim dean.

Last year’s BIO International Convention, in Atlanta, attracted more than 14,000 participants.]]> http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/09/big-biotech-conference-accepti.html http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/09/big-biotech-conference-accepti.html Agricultural Research Natural Resources and Environmental Design Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:44:50 -0500 Dr. Omon Isikhuemhen, the SAES mycologist who coordinates the Mushroom Biology & Fungal Biotechnolgy Laboratory at the University Farm, has been invited to give a poster presentation on his research work and to serve as a session co-convener at the 5th International Medicinal Mushroom Conference in Nantong, China, the first week in September. Isikhuemhen is serving as co-convener for a conference  session covering “Physiology, Biochemistry and Genetics.” In another of the conference’s eight sessions, one  devoted to Taxonomy, Ecology, and Germplasm Depositories,” he is scheduled to present research that he and a colleague have conducted into “Mating Pattern and Preliminary Studies on Strain Selection in the Tropical Mushroom Lentinus Squarrosulus Mont.”

The 5th International Medicinal Mushroom Conference in Nantong was organized by many of the same scientists who have established the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms. The conference brings medical doctors and immunologists together along with mycologists for research updates and subsequent technical developments. Isikhuemhen served on the International Scientific Committee for the 5th International Medicinal Mushroom Conference. ]]> http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/09/saes-research-shows-up-on-far.html http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/09/saes-research-shows-up-on-far.html Academic Departments Natural Resources and Environmental Design Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:42:49 -0500 At the 2009 annual meeting of the Plant Growth Regulation Society of America (PGRSA), Dr. Guochen Yang, an SAES plant biotechnologist, and an SAES research associate, Zhongge “Cindy” Lu, presented findings from research into
“In Vitro Galax Seed Germination Under Different Plant Growth Regulator, Culture Medium Strength and pH Factors.”

After holding its 33rd meeting in Quebec City in 2006, its  34th meeting in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in 2007 and the organization’s, 36th annual get-together in San Francisco in 2008, the the PGRSA chose Asheville for its 2009 annual meeting in early August.  At the conference, Yang received an invitation from the PGRSA’s executive director to serve for three years on the organization’s steering committee, an advisory body that addresses most of the organization’s basic management decisions.

The PGRSA has been giving scientists from many areas of specialization a central agency for collecting and disseminating information on plant growth regulators, plant tissue culture and other propagation techniques since the organization was established in 1973. The organization publishes reference books and a quarterly journal of technical articles.]]> http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/08/evergreen-research-presented-a.html http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/08/evergreen-research-presented-a.html Academic Departments Natural Resources and Environmental Design Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:47:29 -0500 The North Carolina Biotechnology Center will be taking grant applications until Sept. 23 for proposals, with cost projections of less than $75,000, for projects that will strengthen biotechnology research and development at academic institutions and other non-profits involved in research. Among the specific areas on the Biotechnology Center’s wish list this fall are biotech applications for food safety, nutritional and natural products, and also projects that will have specific applications in agriculture.

To give researchers at lower profile institutions an inside track, scientists at the main campuses of Duke, N.C. State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are ineligible for this funding program. Among the grant recipients in 2008 was the SAES’s Dr. Omon Isikhuemhen, who was awarded $75,000 to investigate potential applications for biotechnology methods in mass propagation, inoculation and screening of truffle-inoculated seedlings.]]> http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/08/biotech-research-proposals-due.html http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/08/biotech-research-proposals-due.html Academic Departments Natural Resources and Environmental Design Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:45:39 -0500

One of A&T’s sister 1890 land-grants, Delaware State University, will be hosting a national conference on agriculture, and natural resources conservation and management Oct. 15-18. This will be the third annual conference that Delaware State’s College of Agriculture and Related Sciences is hosting to bring together specialists in the many areas related to sustainable agriculture and natural resources management for an exchange of ideas. A call for papers has gone out, and the deadline for abstracts is Aug. 30. Papers submitted will be peer-reviewed and must adhere to the guidelines for authors for the Journal of Environmental Monitoring and Restoration. Manuscripts accepted will be published in the “Proceedings of the National Conference on Agriculture and Natural Resource Conservation and Management.”]]> http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/08/abstract-deadline-in-dover-is.html http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/08/abstract-deadline-in-dover-is.html Natural Resources and Environmental Design SAES Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:16:26 -0500 A 2004 A&T graduate has passed along a progress report to one of his former instructors, Dr. Manuel Reyes, that makes a bachelor’s in bioenvironmental engineering now look like a launching pad, literally as well as metaphorically. Howard Conyers completed work on his doctorate in mechanical engineering at Duke University this summer. The doctorate from Duke — along with a master’s in mechanical engineering from Duke and a bachelor’s in bioenvironmental engineering from A&T  — set Conyers up for a prompt post-graduation employment offer, as a structural dynamicist at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Louisiana and Mississippi. In e-mail to Reyes, Conyers — make that Dr. Conyers — writes that he will be working “to help design the rocket engines for the new space shuttle project.” Conyers finished off his prep work for launching a career with NASA with a doctoral dissertation on "The Effect of Wing Damage on Aeroelastic Behavior" at Duke. It was an academic career that began in the fall of 2000, when Conyers enrolled at A&T as one of the USDA’s 1890 Scholars. (USDA 1890 Scholars receive summer employment with a USDA agency as well as full tuition, room and board, and fees for one of the 1890 Institutions.) Before leaving A&T for Duke, Conyers became the first bioenvironmental engineering major to receive the Namaskar Award, which the College of Engineering presents annually to the top undergraduate student in the graduating class in for exemplary academics, campus leadership and community service. Conyer’s exemplary academic achievement was a perfect 4.0 GPA at A&T.

The SAES has another current connection to NASA and the Space Shuttle Endeavour in particular, in addition to Dr. Conyers. When Endeavour left earth on July 15, the cargo included a National 4-H flag, featuring the 4-H clover. Endeavour carried the 4-H Flag along on its most recent mission to increase public awareness of the 4-H Science, Engineering and Technology Program, which has an ambitious goal of bringing a million new young people into science, engineering and technology by 2013. There will be another national public awareness campaign involving 4-H and cutting-edge science on Oct. 7: National Youth Science Day. This year’s national science experiment, which will be conducted by millions of young Americans, is a Biofuel Blast that will give young scientists a chance to “see firsthand how this biofuel is produced.”]]> http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/08/saes-and-nasa-connections-stru.html http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/08/saes-and-nasa-connections-stru.html Academic Departments Natural Resources and Environmental Design Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:50:25 -0500 Delaware State University, one of A&T’s sister 1890 land-grants, will be hosting a national conference on agriculture, and natural resources conservation and management, Oct. 15-18. This will be the third annual conference that Delaware State’s College of Agriculture and Related Sciences is hosting to bring together specialists in the many areas related to sustainable agriculture and natural resources management for an exchange of ideas. A call for papers has gone out, and the deadline for abstracts is Aug. 30. Papers submitted will be peer-reviewed and must adhere to the guidelines for authors for the Journal of Environmental Monitoring and Restoration. Manuscripts accepted will be published in the “Proceedings of the National Conference on Agriculture and Natural Resource Conservation and Management.”]]> http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/07/call-for-sustainable-ag-and-na.html http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/07/call-for-sustainable-ag-and-na.html Cooperative Extension Natural Resources and Environmental Design Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:29:57 -0500

A story that ran under the headline “Family farm grows mushrooms” in the Raleigh News & Observer on Wednesday, May 17, began with sentence: “Linda Spain decided to become a shiitake mushroom farmer after reading an article in Southern Living magazine.” For SAES faculty and staff, the words “shiitake mushroom” and “Southern Living” in the same sentence will probably jar a vague recollection. The source of that recollection is the 2006 issue of Re:search, which noted that Dr. Omon Isikhuemhen’s work to bolster the state’s shiitake mushroom production had caught the eye of the magazine with the 20th largest circulation in the country. Although the News & Observer story doesn’t name names when revealing the history of the Spain family farms evolution into shiitake production, it does say, early on, that “N.C. A&T University has been instrumental in encouraging farmers to try this new crop.”]]> http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/05/our-man-omon.html http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/05/our-man-omon.html Natural Resources and Environmental Design Wed, 27 May 2009 14:48:03 -0500 The March 2009 issue of the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture’s NACTA Journal has a review of Fundamentals of Plant Science, a 682-page textbook co-authored by Dr. Marihelen Glass of the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Design. The reviewer recommends that, “Any student in an introductory plant science-based course should find this text easy to understand, informative, and interesting.” Fundamentals of Plant Science is now available at Amazon.com and other online retail portals.]]> http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/05/textbook-example.html http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/05/textbook-example.html Academic Departments Natural Resources and Environmental Design Wed, 13 May 2009 16:19:35 -0500 The findings of a team of SAES research scientists was published in the January issue of the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. The research was led by Dr. Charles Raczkowski, and the team included another SAES soil scientist, Dr. G. B. Reddy, and Dr. Manuel R. Reyes, a professor of bioenvironmental engineering. Joining the SAES scientists in a study of a “Comparison of conventional and no-tillage corn and soybean production on runoff and erosion in the southeastern U.S. Piedmont” were Dr. Warren J. Busscher and Phil Bauer of the Agricultural Research Service’s Soil, Water, and Plant Research Center in Florence, S.C. The study results published in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation compared the water runoff implications of conventional soil tillage with no-till in several soil types. Among the study findings was that “The NT [no-till] six-year runoff average was 33 % lower than the six-year runoff average of CT [conventional tillage].”]]> http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/05/soil-mien.html http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/2009/05/soil-mien.html Academic Departments Natural Resources and Environmental Design Wed, 13 May 2009 16:03:22 -0500