Upcoming EventsDecember 11
"Garden of Lights" Tour
at Brookside Gardens
Tour benefits Green Building
Fund established by the college to cover costs of planned "green"
building at UM's Central Maryland Research & Education
Center in Howard County.
Time: 5:30 p.m. to 9
p.m
Location: Brookside
Gardens
1800
Glenallan Ave Wheaton 20902
Entrance fee: $20 per car or
van
Brookside Gardens is donating all proceeds from the
tour to the Green Building Fund
Contact: Ria Malloy,
mmalloy@umd.edu
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Animal Sciences ranked in top 10 for faculty
productivity
Academic
Analytics has ranked Animal and Avian
Sciences (ANSC) No. 9 in the nation for faculty
productivity in 2007. The Chronicle of Higher
Education's website recently
published the ranking. The metric used is "faculty
scholarly productivity index," an assessment of faculty
publication rates, impact on research through citations,
grant funding, and awards received by faculty. ANSC
ranked particularly high in the percentage of
award-winning faculty, tying with University of
California at Davis for first place, at 25%. Crediting
all faculty members for the achievement, department
chair Tom Porter states
"this ranking is a great reflection on our research
program."
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 Regents' award goes to Maria
Malloy
What does it take
to win a Board of Regents' Staff Award? Ask Ria Malloy,
business manager for the University of
Maryland Home and Garden Information Center (HGIC).
According to this year's recipient for nonexempt staff,
cited for extraordinary contribution to her unit, it
takes "the support, encouragement, good ideas, and hard
work of other people that make me look good." Ask
Malloy's boss, HGIC director Jon Traunfeld,
and he says it takes--and this is the vastly shortened
version--a stellar employee who's not afraid of any
challenge and who HGIC is lucky to have, great
interpersonal skills, someone who motivates others and
sees the whole picture, a person who's an invaluable
source of new ideas and who interacts closely with all
staff and faculty. Malloy, who earned a B.S. in
horticulture from UM and who's worked for HGIC since
1994, has a special expertise in plant identification,
landscape design, and wetlands plants. She currently
serves as project manager for the university's Green Building
project in Clarksville. HGIC is a division of University of
Maryland Cooperative Extension.
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It would be better to
meet E. coli 0157:H7--
--in a dark alley than in
your food. This strain of E.
coli is a major pathogen that can lurk in ground
beef and fresh produce (remember spinach from Fall
'06?). That's why food safety microbiologist Jianghong Meng is
conducting a survey of retail meat products. His goal is
"trying to understand the prevalence of disease-causing
E. coli in the food supply." His findings, he says,
"will help government agencies establish new guidelines
and regulations to prevent and control foodborne illness
caused by E. coli and similar bacteria." Meng, professor
in Nutrition and Food
Science, is working with an FDA lab that houses
6,000 E. coli strains collected from states across the
country.  Food safety holiday
tipsTo help people avoid
foodborne illness, Meng's colleague, food safety expert
Mark Kantor,
cautions that food handling mistakes are more common
than most people think. "The U.S. Department of
Agriculture," says Kantor, "suggests following four steps to
help keep food free from harmful bacteria and safe for
your family to eat throughout the holidays." Kantor is
an associate professor in food science. Access
Kantor's Q & A about
the safety of eating fresh spinach and other fresh
vegetables. |
All
things [goat] considered
More
goat is eaten worldwide than any other meat, says the
U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization. Goat meat-high
in protein, low in fat-is popular in the U.S. among
people of Middle Eastern, African, Asian, Latin
American, and Caribbean heritage. U.S. demand for goat
meat has grown high, far outweighing what this country
alone can produce. Which means the U.S. has to import
65% of the goat meat consumed here.
Sheep and
goat specialist Susan Schoenian
and colleagues at the Western Maryland
Research and Education Center (WMREC) in Keedysville
stand at the forefront of efforts to satisfy this
demand. Besides raising a herd of meat goats, they're
developing and administering tests and advising
producers in management techniques through education
that includes Schoenian's blog.
One test they've developed, the Western Maryland
Pasture-Based Meat Goat Performance Test, measures
parasite resistance. Gaining wide use elsewhere, the
test also enables researchers to determine genetic
differences in growth performance and carcass traits.
Consumers' desired age and size of animal along with
quality of its meat is not universal, but varies by
culture.
BTW, if you've never laid eyes on a
gorgeous goat, treat yourself to Schoenian's Web slideshow of
WMREC farm's goats
a'gallivanting!
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Wei's
Way
I take pride in
announcing that the USDA has renewed its $5 million
three-year grant to the National Research Initiative
Coordinated Agricultural Project on Avian Influenza. The
project is a consortium led by the University of
Maryland under the direction of Dr. Daniel Perez,
associate professor at the Virginia-Maryland
Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. According
to Dr. Siba Samal,
associate dean of Vet-Med, "this renewal comprises 16
proposals, including 2 from UM and represents 13
institutions across the nation."Dr. William
Rivera, professor, Institute of Applied
Agriculture, continues producing publications and
delivering speeche for organizations here and abroad.
Bill specializes in contemporary strategies to reform
and develop agricultural knowledge and information
systems in developing countries. He just completed a
workshop manual for the U.N. Food and Agricultural
Organization of and will speak in South Africa at the
Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program.
I congratulate him on receiving the Phillip Merrill
Presidential Scholars award for excellence in
tutoring.Congratulations to Drs. Jim Hanson and John Horowitz,
both associate professors in Agricultural and
Resource Economics. Jim was recently appointed to
the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on
Twenty-First Century Agriculture. The NRC is part of the
National Academy of Sciences. John has been named
associate editor of the journal, "Environmental and
Resource Economics."Congratulations to Dr. Peter
Dernoeden, professor of turfgrass science,
Department of Plant Science and
Landscape Architecture. The Crop Science Society of
America (CSSA) has not only named Peter a fellow, but
has also presented him with an award for outstanding
contributions to crop science through education,
national and international service, and research. Peter
is also a fellow of the American Society of
Agronomy. | |
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