Honors and Awards

Anurag Agrawal, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, received a National Science Foundation Career Award. Agrawal studies the ecology and evolution of plant-insect interactions. He joined the CALS faculty in 2004.

Louis Albright, professor of biological and environmental engineering, was the recipient of a USDA Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award. His primary teaching and research focus is environmental control and energy management in agricultural buildings. He has been honored many times for his teaching, has published more than 200 papers, and holds several patents.

Challenges for Rural America, a book co-edited by David Brown, professor of development sociology, was named Outstanding Academic Title of 2004 by CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. Five other CALS faculty members contributed chapters to the book.

Susan Brown, professor of horticultural sciences, has been honored with the Jackson Dawson Memorial Medal presented by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. An apple breeder, Brown was cited for exceptional skill in the science or practice of hybridization.
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/pubs/press/2004/051129brown.html

Ronnie Coffman, professor and chair of Plant Breeding and Genetics and director of CALS International Programs, is this year's recipient of the International Service in Agronomy Award from the American Society of Agronomy. His work has been important to the development of improved rice varieties, and he has collaborated extensively with institutions in the developing world.

Margery Daughtrey, a senior extension associate at the Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center, received the Citizen of the Year Award from the Long Island Farm Bureau.

Dan Decker, professor of natural resources and the newly appointed director of the Office of Land Grant Affairs, was honored in April with the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service for his outstanding service as director of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station and his leadership and dedication to the College's land-grant mission.

Tim Fahey, professor of natural resources, was honored in April with the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities. Fahey, a forest ecologist who teaches Introduction to Environmental Conservation to 400 students every spring, was cited for his innovative and entertaining teaching style.

Tarleton Gillespie, assistant professor of communication, has been selected as a Fellow at the Stanford Information Institute. Gillespie, who has a book in press (MIT) titled Technology Rules: Copyright and the Realignment of Digital Culture, has also been invited to participate in the Yale Law School Information Society Project.

Laura Harrington, assistant professor of entomology, was a co-recipient of an award from the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Harold F. (Skip) Hintz, professor emeritus of animal science, was made a Fellow of the American Society of Animal Science in the teaching category in recognition of his outstanding contributions to teaching of animal nutrition and advising and mentoring of undergraduate students.

Bob Howarth, the David Atkinson Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, was named New York's representative to the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee of the Chesapeake Bay Region.

Daniel Krall, professor of landscape architecture, has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Professor Emeritus Michael Latham of Nutritional Science has been selected for the 2005 American Public Health Association International Health Sciences Lifetime Achievement Award. The award recognized outstanding individuals who have demonstrated sustained commitment to the promotion and development of primary health care and creativity in expanding concepts pertinent to the practice of public health with an international focus.

Xingen Lei, associate professor of animal science, received the AFIA Nonruminant Nutrition Research Award at the annual scientific meeting of the American Society of Animal Sciences in July 2005. This award recognizes his outstanding contributions to improving the efficiency of utilization of phosphorus and other minerals in swine. This year Lei also received the Provost's Award for Research.

Two students in the Department of Natural Resources received grants as Teresa Heinz Scholars for Environmental Research. Katherine Mills, a PhD candidate studying with Associate Professor Mark Bain, received $10,000 from the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Foundation to support her project, “Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management in the Gulf of Maine: Addressing Scientific and Governance Needs.” Dora Sugar, a master's degree student with Professor Tim Fahey, was awarded $5,000 for her project, “Decline and Defense: Does Calcium Deficiency Predispose Sugar Maple to Disease and Insect Damage?” Mills and Sugar were among only 16 Heinz Scholars to be chosen from U.S. universities this year.

Jane Mt. Pleasant, director of the American Indian Program, was featured in the November issue of Smithsonian Magazine as one of the “35 People Who Made a Difference in the World.” Mt. Pleasant was recognized for her merging of Iroquois tradition with Western science for a more sustainable future.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov05/Notable.Mt.pleasant.ssl.html

Dana Palmer, extension associate in animal science, and Debbie Clute-Grusenmeyer, extension support specialist in PRO-DAIRY and animal science, received the Award of Merit from the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, recognizing their statewide leadership in 4-H youth development programming.

Assistant Professor Pedro Perez and Deborah Streeter, the Bruce F. Failing, Sr. Professor of Personal Enterprise and Small Business Management, both of the Department of Applied Economics and Management, have each been awarded $5,000 from the Louis H. Zalaznick Teaching Assistantship Program administered by the Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise (EPE) Program.
http://epe.cornell.edu

Professor Marty Petrovic of the Department of Horticulture received the Environmental Protection Agency's 2005 Environmental Quality Award in recognition of his role in the Long Island East End Nitrogen Management Challenge for Golf Courses.

E. John Pollak, professor of animal science, received the Rockefeller Prentice Award in Animal Breeding and Genetics at the annual scientific meeting of the American Society of Animal Sciences in July 2005. This award recognizes his national and international contributions to development of novel strategies for the selection and genetic improvement of beef cattle.

The Agriculture and Life Sciences Alumni Association recognized eight outstanding alumni and faculty members Dan Sisler and Ray Wu at the 2005 Outstanding Alumni Awards Banquet on November 4.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov05/CALS_alumni_awards.html

Linda Rayor, assistant professor of entomology, was named the winner of a Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Service-Learning Award. Rayor received the $5,000 prize for her development and proposed expansion of the Cornell Naturalists Outreach Program.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May05/Kaplan.awds.box.doc.html

Tony Shelton, professor of entomology and professor and director of international agriculture at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, has been named the 2005 recipient of the Entomology Society of America's Recognition Award for Research in Agriculture.
http://www.entsoc.org/awards/professional/entomology.htm

Tammo Steenhuis, professor of biological and environmental engineering, is the recipient of the 2005 Henry Darcy Medal from the European Geophysical Society. Steenhuis, a soil and water engineering expert, was cited for his outstanding contributions to understanding the processes that govern contaminant movement in rural watersheds.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Oct05/notable.steenhuis.ssl.html

Steve Tanksley, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant Breeding, won the 2005 Kumho Science International Award in Plant Molecular Biology for his work in genome mapping, comparative genomics, and marker-assisted breeding of crop plants.

L. Dale Van Vleck, professor emeritus of animal science, received the Morrison Award at the annual scientific meeting of the American Society of Animal Sciences in July 2005. This award, named for Frank B. Morrison, former Cornell professor and head of the Department of Animal Science, is the most prestigious offered by the Society and recognizes Van Vleck's outstanding career in research and teaching in animal genetics.

Ray Wu, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, was named to the Scientific Advisory Council of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He joins Steve Tanksley, who was appointed previously.

The doctoral dissertation of Connie Yuan, assistant professor of communication, has won the Laura Crowell Thesis/Dissertation Award, the top dissertation award in the field of communication. Yuan's dissertation concerned the impacts of social capital on the development of group transactive memory systems in work groups. She earned her PhD at the University of Southern California.