The Association of Leadership Educators has recognized the Purdue Agriculture Leadership Development Certificate Program as the Outstanding Leadership Program of the Year. The program will receive official recognition with a plaque and check during the association’s annual award and recognition banquet in Spokane, Wash., July 13-16.

Shafer

Jerry W. Shafer has joined AgComm as a marketing specialist responsible for marketing educational materials. Shafer has spent the last 15 years with Farm Journal Media, where he headed up sales and marketing efforts of AgDay Television for 10 years and AgWeb.com the past five years.

Ben Gramig has joined the department as an assistant professor. Gramig recently completed his PhD in agricultural economics at Michigan State University. His teaching and research activities are focused primarily on environmental and natural resource economics.

Gramig

LeeAnn Williams received the 2007-08 Outstanding Advisor Award from the Purdue Academic Advising Association. The awards selection committee noted, “We were amazed and inspired by the hard work, time and dedication that LeeAnn brings to our campus and are delighted to have someone with such notable achievements as a colleague.”

Otto Doering, a faculty member since 1972, has been appointed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Advisory Committee.

Andy Oppy, BS ’03, has joined the department as an undergraduate academic adviser to advise students about academic, career, and personal planning.

Oppy

Mitch Tuinstra, MS ’93, PhD ’96, is the Wickersham Chair of Excellence in Agricultural Research. Tuinstra, who returned to Purdue from Kansas State last year, is a professor of plant breeding and genetics. His research interests are in the areas of corn and sorghum genetics and plant breeding, and he provides statewide leadership in maize improvement. The Wickersham Chair of Excellence was created by the College of Agriculture to recognize outstanding mid-career faculty.

Gebisa Ejeta has been appointed a member of the Science Council of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, a research organization co-sponsored by the World Bank and three United Nations agencies dedicated to improving human nutrition and health and protecting the environment. Ejeta, an Ethiopian native and a Purdue faculty member since 1984, has developed new sorghum varieties that are resistant to drought and the parasitic weed striga. The new sorghums, plus an integrated management system that Ejeta established, have increased crop yield by as much as five times in many areas of Africa.

Purdue took five teams to the 14th Annual Collegiate Turf Bowl competition at the 2008 Golf Course Superintendents Association of America International Golf Course Conference and Show in Orlando, Fla. The teams placed second, third, fifth, 18th and 26th out of a record 92 teams. The team participants were: Chase Bonnell, David Cooper, Phillip Fischer, Eric Haub, Daniel Heiss, Matthew Johnson, Jeff Jones, Justin Milcarek, Andrew Miller, J.W. Potter, Brittney Ray, Steve Ruckman, Chris Ryan, Neal Sitzman, Matt Sumpter, Tracy Tudor Jr., Chris Ulrich, Jake Walston, Eric Wanstrath, and Jack Weatherwax. Ruckman, Jonah Snyder, Weatherwax and Sitzman also competed in the Sports Turf Managers Association’s annual Student Collegiate Challenge in Phoenix in mid-January, placing fourth out of 35 teams.

A team consisting of Katie Burger, Katie Hardy and Matthew Stine finished second among six teams at the American Forage and Grasslands Council’s Forage Bowl on Jan. 28 in Louisville, Ky. Coached by assistant professor Lori Unruh Snyder, the team earned a $300 cash prize.

Eric Bahler, Katie Hardy and Kyle Stull, the Purdue Crops A Team, placed first, and Roy Cooper, Rachel Doctor and Ben Spencer, the Purdue Crops B Team, placed second in October at the Southeastern Regional Soil Judging Contest held at Purdue. Hardy was also top individual, edging out Spencer and Cooper, who finished second and third, respectively, in the individual competition.

Two teams performed well in national crops judging competitions in November. Eric Bahler, Roy Cooper and Ben Spencer placed seventh at the Kansas City national contest, while Katie Hardy, Bahler, and Spencer placed sixth at the Chicago competition.

Six Purdue students placed among the top 15 competitors in the Regional Soil Judging Contest hosted by the University of Illinois at Marshall, Ill. Purdue team members included Joey Dunn, second, Allison Bechman, fourth, Cody Fink, sixth, Austin Mattern, seventh, Betsy Webb, 12th, and Nic Meller, 13th. The team placed first in the team judging portion of the competition and placed first overall in the contest.