Professor Albert Heber received the Tony and Mary Hulman Health Achievement Award on Oct. 17 from the Indiana Public Health Foundation. The annual award recognizes someone who has helped enhance public health in Indiana in one of four categories: environmental health; geriatrics/gerontology; preventive medicine and public health; and health science research. Heber was honored in the environmental health category for his national and international contributions to the improvement of air quality near livestock production facilities.

Breaking New Ground is one of seven recipients of the 2005 New Freedom Initiative Award from the U.S. Department of Labor. The award recognizes nonprofits, small businesses, corporations and individuals that have demonstrated exemplary and innovative efforts in furthering the employment and workplace environment for people with disabilities. The Breaking New Ground team is Professor Bill Field and Paul Jones (project directors), Denise Heath (administrative assistant) and Steve Swain, BS ’73 (rural rehabilitation specialist and outreach coordinator). Over the past 25 years, the program has helped an estimated 30,000 farmers, ranchers and agricultural workers with disabling injuries or diseases to remain productively engaged in some aspect of agriculture.

Jamie Loizzo has joined the department as a video producer and educational technology specialist. A graduate of Southern Illinois University, Loizzo previously was a producer for the ABC-TV affiliate in Fort Myers, Fla.

Staff members won three silver medals at the CASE V (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) annual conference in Chicago in December. Susan Steeves was honored for excellence in research/scientific/medical writing. Connections received an award in the category of tabloids/newsletters for an external audience. Team members are Tom Campbell, Frank Koontz, Dan Annarino, Jenny Pratt, Christine Roper and Mike Atwell. Agricultures was honored in the category of specialized or unit-level magazines. Team members are Olivia Maddox, Russ Merzdorf, Laura Hoelscher, Campbell, Steeves, Kay Hagen, BS ’00, Beth Forbes and Chip Morrison.

Professor Wally Tyner, PhD ’77, received a national award for distinguished policy contribution at the national meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association. A faculty member since 1977, Tyner was honored for his work with the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture over the past 20 years.

Raymond Florax has joined the department as a professor. He also works part-time with the Department of Spatial Economics at the Free University in Amsterdam. Florax earned his PhD from the University of Twente, and his MA and BA from Tilburg University, both in The Netherlands. Florax researches and teaches about the interface of economics, space and the environment. He has a keen interest in investigating and contributing to local and regional university-economy interactions.
Brigitte Waldorf was a professor at the University of Arizona before joining the Purdue faculty in a similar position. In her research, Waldorf combines a topical interest in population, urban and transportation issues with a methodo- logical interest in spatial and quantitative analysis. She teaches the economic geography of food and resources.

Roman Keeney, PhD ’04, has joined the department as an assistant professor of farm and rural household economics.
Agronomy

Chris Johannsen, PhD ’69, professor emeritus and director emeritus of Purdue’s Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing, has been awarded the Hugh Hammond Bennett Award from the Soil and Water Conservation Society. The award recognizes extraordinary national and international accomplishments in the conservation of soil, water and related natural resources. Johannsen promoted the use of remote sensing, geographic information systems and global positioning systems in conservation research and education.
Animal Sciences

Scott Lake has been appointed an assistant professor specializing in beef nutrition and management. Lake competed on the Southern Utah University rodeo team for two years before transferring to the University of Nevada-Reno, where he earned his BS and MS degrees. He earned his PhD from the University of Wyoming. Lake’s research focuses on using nutraceuticals to improve beef cattle production and efficiency.
Biochemistry

Jim Clemens, BS ’90, has joined the faculty as an assistant professor. Clemens was previously at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles. His area of research is molecular mechanisms of neuron connection specificity. Clemens received his PhD in biological chemistry from the University of Michigan in 1999.

Anna Wilson, BS ’68, MS ’72, has been re-elected to a three-year term as treasurer of the Division of Chemical Education in the American Chemical Society. Wilson is the department’s coordinator of teaching laboratories.
Botany and Plant Pathology

Jana Beckerman has joined the department as an assistant professor. Beckerman earned her PhD at Texas A&M and came to Purdue from the University of Minnesota. She teaches introductory plant pathology and plant disease diagnosis.
Entomology
Michael L. McManus, BS ’59, MS ’62, PhD ’66, is the 2005 winner of the department’s John V. Osmun Alumni Award for Professional Achievement. McManus is leader of the USDA Forest Service’s insect pathology and microbial control research project and has had an enormous impact on forest pest research, particularly as an expert on the gypsy moth. He works at the Northeastern Center for Forest Health Research in Hamden, Conn.
Food Science

Professor Philip Nelson, BS ’56, PhD ’67, received the 2005 Institute of Food Technologists’ Carl R. Fellers Award at the association’s annual meeting in New Orleans. The award honors Nelson as an IFT member “who has served and brought honor and recognition to the profession of food science and technology.”

Kirby Hayes, BS ’96, MS ’98, PhD ’02, was inducted into the Purdue Teaching Academy as a Fellow during a campus ceremony Oct. 24. Hayes joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 2002.
Forestry and Natural Resources

Professor Harvey Holt received the Illinois Arborist Association’s Special Recognition Award on Oct. 18 “in recognition of your hard work and dedication to the Midwest Urban Tree Care Forum and for your commitment to educating future tree care professionals.”

Joe O’Leary, retired professor and current head of the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University, has won the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Research Award for Excellence in Recreation and Park Research. This National Recreation and Park Association award is given annually to an individual whose contributions to recreation and park research have significantly advanced the cause of the recreation movement.

Maria Sepulveda has joined the department as an assistant professor with research interests in ecotoxicology and wildlife diseases. She earned her PhD from the University of Florida and her DVM from the University of Chile in Santiago, Chile.

Deepak Ray has joined the department as a postdoctoral research associate. He received his PhD from the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. His expertise is in modeling regional climate-land interactions in tropical ecosystems. He works in associate professor Bryan Pijanowski’s Human-Environment Modeling and Analysis Laboratory.

A team of Purdue students finished third among 32 teams competing in the Quiz Bowl at the annual Society of American Foresters convention in Fort Worth, Texas. Team members were Abe Baer, Michael Spalding, BS ’05, Rosie Goodman and Josh Sloan. The Purdue team beat groups from Cal Poly, Oklahoma State and the University of Wisconsin before losing to Virginia Tech in the semifinals.

Professor Bill Hoover has been elected a Fellow by the Society of American Foresters. A faculty member since 1974, Hoover was recognized for his service to the society and to the profession.
Horticulture and Landscape Architecture

Morgan Burke, BS ’05, Allison Harness, BS ’05, and Yi Hong (Civil Engineering) were honored by the American Society of Landscape Architects at the association’s annual meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Oct. 7-10. Their project, “The Spill: Utilizing the Active Method to Combat the Growing Combined Sewer Overflow Epidemic,” was honored in the student collaboration category. Undertaken as an independent research study, the project was an effort to develop a new approach to handling urban stormwater runoff.

Professor Allen Hammer is the 2005 recipient of the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Life Science’s Outstanding Alumnus Award. He will also receive a similar award from NC State’s Department of Horticultural Science. A Purdue faculty member since 1973, Hammer received his BS from North Carolina State in 1973. He recently had his 250th article published in Grower Talks, a magazine for the floriculture industry.
Youth Development and Agricultural Education

Mark Tucker joined the department Jan. 2 as an associate professor in the area of agricultural communication. Tucker came to Purdue from Ohio State University, where he held a similar position. Tucker will provide guidance to the agricultural communication program, with a special emphasis on science communication.