Regents� Award presentation: From L: C. D. Mote, Jr., president, University of Maryland; David Nevins, chair, University System of Maryland Board of Regents; award winner, Jonathan Kays, natural resource specialist, University of Maryland Cooperative Extension; William E. Kirwan, chancellor, University System of Maryland.

Nearly 50% of U.S. forestland is privately owned, says Jonathan Kays, natural resources specialist for University of Maryland Cooperative Extension. And many of the owners are individuals and families earning their living as doctors and plumbers, far removed from wildlife or forest management. Which is where Kays comes in. The 2006 University System of Maryland Regents� awardee for excellence in teaching offers an array of educational programs to forest owners, homeowners, and the just plain interested. The goal of his forest stewardship workshop is turning out students who can �manage forest resources in a way that meets the needs of the current owners, but doesn�t detract from nor degrade the use by future generations.� Kays teaches onsite or from the Western Maryland Research and Education Center in Keedysville.

Through the Coverts Project, Kays is known to change people�s lives. A covert�pronounced like the word �cover� with a �t� on the end�is a thicket providing sheltering habitat for wildlife. During outdoor classes, he shows how sound, multiple-use forest management practices can improve wildlife habitats, timber and fuelwood growth, and aesthetics. And at the same time the woodland owner can earn a long-term financial return. A key part of the program is that attendees, who become known as �cooperators,� perform personal outreach, passing on what they�ve gained to others. Says one cooperator, �I realized my motives for attaining the knowledge were somewhat selfish: I had two farms badly in need of guidance. Now that I've gotten my own house in order I�m better equipped to help other landowners.�

Professor and dairy scientist Mark Varner, speaking at a conference in Stavropol, Russia

�Russia lacks the infrastructure to maintain and increase expertise,� says Raymond Miller, director of the college�s International Programs in Agriculture and Natural Resources, �so it�s difficult to learn new techniques.� Mark Varner, professor of Animal and Avian Sciences and dairy scientist for University of Maryland Cooperative Extension, created the opportunity, an inaugural event. Varner facilitated the session from Stavropol State Agrarian University, located in the country�s agriculturally rich southwest region.

Advances in videoconferencing technology�and its effective use�made the event possible. Post-conference, an official for the Ministry of Agriculture summoned Varner to brainstorm future topics. Gratifying to Miller was the free exchange of ideas he witnessed from Symons Hall during questions and answers. �Speaking freely and asking questions,� he says, "isn't part of Russian culture. But they asked questions because confidence and trust were built.�

The number of diseases that could attack plants seemed finite 27 years ago when Ethel Dutky started at the plant clinic, housed in the entomology department. The clinic, with its dissecting scopes and biosafety hood, is a program of University of Maryland Cooperative Extension. Now, thanks in part to globalization, a farmer or a horticultural grower might send a specimen to her lab�or drop off a whole plant�infected with a bacteria, fungus, or virus she�s never seen before.

The commercial horticulture industry, she notes, relies increasingly on offshoring�plants are imported from countries such as Ethiopia, Korea, and Guatemala. Dutky, the director of the Plant Diagnostic Laboratory, the clinic�s formal name, cites improved diagnostic technology and the concentration of supply as the other major reasons behind new discoveries. �Of woody plants,� she says, �six or seven out of every 10 started as cuttings in Oregon. So when one supplier has a problem with disease, the disease gets a free ride all over the country.�

Following 9/11, Dutky�s lab and plant labs at the 49 other U.S. land-grant universities were connected online to form the National Plant Diagnostic Network. �So far we�ve had no known intentional, malicious introductions of organisms,� she says, referring to the networked labs. But with the stakes ramped up, she must now not only focus on diagnosis but on such things as controlling the chain of custody of specimens. �My job,� she says, �is now infused with a legalistic, criminal, and crime scene mentality.�

Some say all politics is personal. That can be said about international relations, too, especially when applied to the sharing of ideas. According to Raymond Miller, five years of building trusting relationships with agricultural scientists in the Russian Federation (R.F.) yielded two by-no-means-minor achievements: a joint U.S.-R.F. conference held last month in Moscow and a collaborative scientific electronic journal sponsored by Moscow State Agroengineering University and the University of Maryland.

�Russia doesn�t have peer-reviewed journals, and Ph.D. dissertations never see the light of day,� says Miller. The director of the college�s International Programs in Agriculture and Natural Resources is referring to the debut of Agromagazine, intended as a bilingual quarterly. The focus of the June 15 inaugural issue: the conference, �Meat Products Safety�From Farm to Table.� The conference helped the two countries begin to understand the science behind their respective safety procedures.

Besides Miller, key on the American side to bringing the conference to bear are Mark Varner, an Animal and Avian Sciences professor and University of Maryland Cooperative Extension dairy scientist, and Robert Hill, a Natural Resource Sciences and Landscape Architecture professor. Expecting no more than 70 Russian participants, Varner found himself addressing almost 200, from 85 different organizations. His topic: the safety of genetically modified organisms.

Enter agricultural biotechnology. According to research by Maureen Storey and Richard Forshee, it may be possible to add Omega-3 fatty acids to soybeans and canola through genetic modification. Myriad foods�salad dressings, chips, yogurt, and soy milk, to name a few�are processed using these oils. Storey and Forshee, director and deputy director of the Center for Food, Nutrition, and Agriculture Policy, admit that bringing these GMO oils to fruition will take a lot more research. As Forshee recently told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the full health impacts of the type of Omega-3 fatty acid being added to crops are still unknown.

I�m happy to report that the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Animal and Avian Sciences have been showered with awards these past couple of months.

For their invaluable contributions to public health I congratulate Vet Med�s Katherine Feldman, Daniel Perez, and Haichen Song. Katherine, assistant director for government and corporate medicine, won this year's prestigious James H. Steele Veterinary Public Health Award for outstanding accomplishments during her tenure with the Epidemic Intelligence Service. EIS is a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that combats the root causes of major epidemics. Daniel, an assistant professor, and Haichen, a research associate, both from the Department of Veterinary Medicine, won second place in the Life Science category at the 19th Annual Invention of the Year Reception, sponsored by the university�s Office of Technology Commercialization. They�ve been honored for their live, attenuated avian influenza vaccine, which can�t grow at warmer temperatures found in the lower respiratory tract, but grows well in the cooler nasal passages. This allows the vaccine to mimic a natural infection and induce immunity without causing disease.

I also want to highly commend Vet Med research associate Govi Dhanasekaran. He�s been awarded the prestigious Merck-Merial Veterinary Research Award for 2006. Govi will travel to Merck in New Jersey to present his research findings and gain an insight into pharmaceutical research.

Two students in animal sciences have distinguished themselves recently and I�m very proud of them. Undergraduate Carin Cordelli has been selected by the university as one of this year�s 30 Philip Merrill Presidential Scholars, a highly competitive program honoring the most successful seniors, along with mentors they�ve chosen from the university faculty and from their K-12 years. Grad student Disha Pant has won a Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship for 2006-07. Hers is one of only 30 of these merit-based fellowships awarded for the entire campus's graduate programs.

For their contributions to rural economic development, I salute Maryland Cooperative Extension�s Doug Tregoning and Willie Lantz. Doug, a senior agent in agriculture and natural resources�and also director of Montgomery County�s Extension office�has won a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to head a multi-state team to teach farmers grain marketing techniques. This award presents a great opportunity for Doug and the other team members to establish MCE as a leader in the Northeast in developing grain marketing educational programs. Willie, a faculty Extension assistant in Garrett County, has been awarded a grant from Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education, a USDA competitive grants program, to test an integrated approach to developing a day-neutral strawberry production industry. Day-neutral strawberries aren�t affected by hours of available daylight, so they can produce throughout the growing season.

College staff members also continue to excel in their work and deserve praise. Edwin Remsberg, our talented photographer in marketing and media services, has won first prize in photography in the annual awards competition held by the Association for Communication Excellence, a professional organization. I also want to recognize distance learning specialist Brad Paleg, from information and education technology, for his technological contributions to making the Stavropol videoconference a reality. The conference, which I watched from Symons Hall, wouldn�t have been possible without Brad. Last but not least, I bid a warm farewell to Steve Rothman, who�s soon retiring after 30 years of service to the college, most recently as head of marketing and media services. Steve leaves behind countless educators and staff who he�s served with a dedication not often found today. I wish him all the best.