staff.matters
the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences staff newsletter
(staff.matters will be published monthly over the summer - watch for the next issue on August 30)
July 27 , 2006
Halifax 2006 Joint Colloquium - The Canadian Societies of Agronomy, Animal Science and Horticultural Science are meeting jointly to provide a venue to share scientific discovery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, August 1 - 4. For more information, visit http://www.nsac.ca/pas/conferences/default.asp or call 1-902-893-6644. The "all inclusive" price for graduate students who are members of their scientific society is only $150, which includes registration for all events, a scientific society tour, three lunches, a welcoming reception, a BBQ, an awards banquet and dance, and for grad students only, a pub tour and mixer. (Accommodation is not included.) Oral and Poster sessions are planned and all graduate students are encouraged to participate in competitions for best papers.
On Thursday, August 3 the Plant Science Graduate Students' Association will be hosting their annual charity BBQ. The proceeds raised from this year's event will benefit the Urban Agriculture Program for children at the Fort Whyte Center Farms. What can you get for your $5 donation? A burger (meat or vegetarian options are available), chips and a pop. And yes, there will be a cash bar! The BBQ will be held in the Plant Science Courtyard from 11:30-1:30. Tickets are available in all AFS department offices. Let's keep the tradition alive!
Smartpark's Summer Night Jazz Fest will be held Thursday, August 17 at 7:30 pm at the Max Bell Centre. The evening will feature five internationally acclaimed jazz musicians, as well as performances by U of M and other local musicians. This is a jazz event for all ages. Tickets are only $10.00, children 14 and under are free (with adult accompaniment). Visit Ticketmaster.ca or call 780-3333 to book - you can also buy tickets at the door. Bring a lawn chair. Free Parking in U Lot.
The XXIII International Conference on Polyphenols will be held August 22-25 at the University of Manitoba . This conference marks the 34th anniversary of the founding of the Groupe Polyphénols and is a great opportunity for scientists from all over the world to exchange their views and most recent findings on phenolics. To learn more about the conference, visit the website at http://umanitoba.ca/polyphenols_conference/
The 2006 Manitoba Soil Science Society Summer Tour will be held August 24 and it is themed "Celebrating Soil Science (and Manitoba 's "Distinct" Society) By Linking Three of its Pillars: Research, Pedology and Extension". Tentative bus departure time is 7:15 am from Kenaston Safeway at McGillivray in Winnipeg , returning around 9:30 pm. They hope to visit fertility trials on clay soils near Oak Bluff, solid pig manure composting and compost application to potato land near Rathwell, landscape restoration south of Treherne in majestic hummocky landscape and nutrient management and fertility trials near Shilo and Carberry. Cost is $80 for regular members; $40 for students; $20 penalty after August 10th and that includes morning/afternoon snacks/drinks, bagged lunch and BBQ dinner. Participants should prepare for wet or dry weather, cool or scorching, pending the forecast. This event runs rain or shine. Space will be limited, register early to guarantee a spot. For further information regarding the MSSS Summer Tour, email msss@cc.umanitoba.ca. For updated information on the tour and additional registration forms, please check the MSSS website at http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/afs/soil_science/msss/
The next Genome Canada Applied Computational Genomics Course will be held here at the University of Manitoba September 8-14. The ACGC introduces biologists to some of the latest methods in bioinformatics, including DNA and protein sequence analysis, Perl scripting, web services and workflows, and high-throughput genome annotation. Researchers from the Genome Canada Bioinformatics Platform will present both lectures and hands-on tutorials. For full details see http://www.gcbioinformatics.ca/training
The Agricultural Institute of Canada is hosting its national conference "Innovation for Growth: Trends and Successes Redefining Agriculture" November 5-8 at the Fairmont Winnipeg, Winnipeg , Manitoba. For more information, visit http://www.aic.ca/.
The American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) International Annual Meeting is scheduled for Indianapolis, IN Nov 12-16 - visit http://www.acsmeetings.org/ for more details.
In the last newsletter, we informed you of Karin Wittenberg taking over the Associate Dean Research position from Rachael Scarth. In other Dean's Office news, Bernie Dronzek will be retiring on August 31 and Merv Pritchard has accepted the challenge of taking on the role of Associate Dean Academic. Merv will also retain the Directorship of the School of Agriculture.
The late Dr. Eugene Lange was inducted into the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame on July 20. Dr. Lange was best known as the first Director for the School of Agriculture. Other inductees with ties to the U of M included alumni Owen McAuley and the late Esmond Jarvis.
Dilantha Fernando, Plant Science was invited to talk in the plenary session of China 's National Plant Protection Conference on Disease Management on July 21, 2006 in Huhhot, Inner Mongolia, P.R. China. Dilantha's talk was titled "Reducing development of pathogen-resistance to chemicals with knowledge based fungicide applications and integration of alternative disease management strategies".
Rob Hill, Plant Science, gave a plenary presentation entitled "ABAP1, an abscisic acid receptor modulating barley germination and dormancy" at the 4th Canadian Plant Genomics Workshop held at Ottawa, June 19-22. Genyi Li of Plant Science also attended the workshop. As well, Raja Ragupathy, Plant Science Ph.D. student, attended along with his advisor Dr. Sylvie Cloutier and presented a poster entitled "Evolutionary origin of a Retrotransposon Mediated Duplication encompassing the Wheat quality locus Glu- B1". Raja also attended the Annual Canada Crop Genomics Initiative meeting held on June 23 at the same venue.
Ryan Cardwell, Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, recently received a $20,000 grant from the Canadian Agricultural Innovation Research Network to study the economic consequences of Genetic Use Restricting Technology in developing-country agriculture. The funds will be used to support a graduate student.
At the American Agricultural Economics Association annual meeting in Long Beach, July 22-25, several students from the Department of Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics competed in the Undergraduate Quizbowl and Grad Students Case Study Competition. Gary Johnson, Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, attended as mentor to the students. Eve Froehlich and Anais Hacault, Master's students, presented their case study "Sun-Maid Growers of California" and developed the idea of whether Sun-Maid should support the marketing order for raisins in the U.S. Their analysis and presentation was noted to be the best of all 12 teams but, unfortunately, in the end they did not make it to the top three. The seven undergraduate students performed remarkably well in the Quizbowl against 31 teams in the competition most of who meet regularly several times a week to practice or take a special quiz bowl class. Erin Braun, our alternate, competed with alternates from other universities and won their first round but were then eliminated from competition. Both 3-person teams won through the first two rounds and the team of Doug Wahl, Ashleigh McLellan and Karen Hodgson made the final 10 before being eliminated. Brooke Fridfinnson, Janelle Mann and Pam Desrochers steamrolled the final rounds of B group, winning matches against Nebraska, a team of alternates, Oklahoma State and Arkansas . The team then contested the grand final where, despite putting up a very good effort, they lost to Texas A & M. Congratulations to all our students, our Department is very proud of you.
Seven Animal Science staff and students - Bill Guenter, Bogdan Slominski and Aseem Golian and graduate students, Tyra Dickson, Wei Jia, Tofuko Woyengo and Hossein Jahanian - attended the Annual Poultry Science Meetings held in Edmonton , July 16-19.This group presented four oral presentations and two posters. The Poultry Science Association also held a Fun Run, which our own Tyra Dickson won handily in 18 minutes and 29 seconds. The first man across the finish line followed at 19 minutes, and the next woman across the line did it in 21 minutes, 12 seconds. Tyra won this event last year as well! Congratulations (again!)
A number of Biosystems Engineering staff and students received awards at the Canadian Society for Bioengineering (CSBE) annual meeting in Edmonton, July 16-19. Ying Chen received the Glenn Downing Award. This award is presented annually to the CSAE/SCGR member who has produced outstanding work in industry, teaching, research, or extension in the area of Power and Machinery. Danny Mann received the Young Engineer of the Year of CSBE, given to recognize the outstanding work of a young engineer of the Society for his/her outstanding contributions to Canadian agricultural, food, and/or biological engineering. A team consisted of M. Nolting, V. R. Parker, N. Wilson and A. Zilinsky received the CSBE Undergraduate Design Project Award for a project entitled "Design of a modular interior mounted biofilter". Jordan Wyatt received a CSBE Undergraduate Thesis Award for his thesis entitled "The effect of saturated steam pretreatment of instant noodles processed with superheated steam" (Advisor: S. Cenkowski). Shafiqur Rahman received a CSBE Graduate Thesis Award (Ph.D.) for his thesis entitled "Soil movement and manure placement from liquid manure injection tools" (Advisor: Y. Chen). Frederick Kahimba, a Ph.D. student under the supervision of R. Sri Ranjan, won first place in the student paper competition for his paper "Soil temperature and fall freeze-thaw effects on infiltration and soil water movement".
Suresh Neethirajan, a PhD student in Biosystems Engineering, was selected as a recipient for the 2006-2007 Canadian Wheat Board Graduate Fellowship.
Agribusiness student Erin Braun has just recently qualified to compete for Canada in the FISU (World University Games) for Triathlon in Lausanne, Switzerland on August 26. She will be funding this trip on her own - if anyone would like to help her out, please contact her at umbraune@cc.umanitoba.ca.
Robert Hill, Plant Science, was featured in the July/August issue of AgriSuccess Journal, in the article "Scientists conduct masterwork in plant hormone research". Read the article online (page 10).
Martin Entz, Plant Science, discusses some interesting findings of the long term rotation study at Glenlea Research Station in the July 6 Farmers Independent Weekly article titled "Static rotation isn't good rotation".
In the July 13 issue of the Farmers Independent Weekly, Arnie Hydamaka of Food Science talks about research into antioxidant qualities of berry crops in the Fork in the Road column.
Carla Zelmer, Plant Science, is featured in the article "Super-high erucic acid rapeseed on the horizon" in the Manitoba Co-operator on July 20.
The National Centre for Livestock and the Environment fundraising campaign kickoff was covered in the July 27 issue of the Manitoba Co-operator and the Farmers Independent Weekly.
And the Faculty's recent AgCentennial celebration was covered in the July 20 and 27 issues of the Farmers Independent Weekly and the Manitoba Co-operator. The July 13 Co-operator continued their profiles of Aggie grads with stories on Peter Kondra (honorary chair of AgCentennial) and Larry Dyck, a diploma grad who breeds roses in Morden.
The July ARDI Newsletter features the projects of several of our researchers including Rene Van Acker, Rick Holley and graduate student Anas Al-Nabulsi, Arnie Hydamaka, and Sue Arntfield. You can also see the complete list of the 18 recently announced projects on their website.
And in the July MRAC newsletter highlighted the recent visit by the MRAC board to the Glenlea Research Station to learn more about the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment and related research projects.
Fiction shelf - For your summer reading the library provides a modest shelf of fiction to take into the field or to the beach. Check out the titles on the shelf above the photocopier. Titles range from the sublime ( A man for all seasons ) to the ridiculous ( Moo .) If you wish to have a loan period longer than two weeks, just ask at the circulation desk when you sign fiction out.
New books - New titles are arriving at a brisk pace. The "lighter" titles on the new book shelf include Chicken: the dangerous transformation of America 's favorite food by Steve Striffler; The goat care handbook by Mary Turner Stille and Making your small farm profitable by Ron Macher.
Web site of the week - Available on the British Agricultural History Web page is the British agricultural history review . One can become quite engrossed in topics such as "Distilling and agriculture, 1870-1939" and "Thirteenth century prices and the money supply." A 1988 issue includes "Gopher tales: a study of western Canadian pest control" by Thomas Isern. (v.36,no.2, pp.188-98). http://www.bahs.org.uk/
AgCentennial 2006 , the 100th anniversary celebration of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences held July 21-23 drew more than 550 alumni and guests together for a variety of events. Visitors were able to tour the campus, connect with old classmates at class reunions and the big Saturday night social and enjoy a HOT summer day at the BBQ at Kelburn Farm. To read more about it visit the U of M homepage. The celebration of the century will continue on November 6 when the Faculty will hold a gala dinner on the official date of the opening of the Manitoba Agricultural College - stay tuned to the AgCentennial website at http://www.umanitoba.ca/afs/agcentennial for details as they are available.
The fundraising campaign for the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment was kicked off on July 19 at the Glenlea Research Station. The campaign, which is aiming to raise $9 million, has already received $3.87 million from corporate and private donors, including a lead gift from Manitoba Pork Council. Read more about it online.
In recognition of the generous contributions to the Department of Animal Science and agricultural research in the Faculty by alumnus Stan Cheung , the Animal Science Research Unit on the Fort Garry campus was recently renamed the T.K. Cheung Centre for Animal Science Research . At a dedication ceremony on July 21, a new sign and plaque for the building were unveiled. Stan received his BSA, M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba and also received an honorary doctorate of laws in 1991.
The Dairy Farmers of Manitoba held a fundraising golf tournament this week, and the Faculty is delighted to receive a $5000 gift from them for the DFM Bursary that is provided to degree and diploma students each year.
The Faculty Softball Tournament was held July 13, and this year's champion was the Glenlea Farm team. They defeated Biosystems Engineering in the A side final. Soil Science was the B side champion over Entomology. A great day was had by all, and once again, thank you to the social committee and volunteers!
The Parking Lot Shuffle - due to a sewer project, the north sections of Parking Lot 'E' and 'G' will be closed or affected by construction from August 1st to September 1st, 2006. We have been told that during construction we can park in the closest vacant lot (either staff or student) as long as we have the original parking decal displayed. So for example if you have a G Lot pass you can park in the South part of E Lot; W Lot or Y Lot between Ellis and Animal Science. Any questions, contact the Parking Office at 474-9483.
U1 Academic Orientation Needs Meeters and Greeters - This year's U1 Academic Orientation begins on Tuesday, September 5, 2006. Once again, they are looking for friendly staff members to help welcome students and give directions to various homeroom locations on campus on the morning of Tuesday, September 5th. To register, contact Jesika Nagamori at 9948 or nagamori@cc.umanitoba.ca with your name, faculty or department, e-mail address, desired location, and your t-shirt size (if you don't already have one). Sign up a friend and they'll post you at the same location.
Agriculture in the Classroom-Manitoba is sending out a request for volunteers for their upcoming Amazing Ag Adventure which runs September 12-14, 2006 at the Red River Ex Park in Winnipeg . They currently have about 1100 Grade 4 and 5 students registered for the event. They require class hosts, responsible for guiding the classes around the event, and station personnel, responsible for the interactive activities at specific sites. You would need to be at River Ex Park by about 8:30 a.m. - they will provide you with lunch, snacks and a guarantee you will have a great time! Please feel free to forward this message on to colleagues, friends, board members, producers and others who you think would enjoy spending a day heightening agriculture awareness and fostering an ongoing interest in agriculture to Grade 4 and 5 students through this interactive event! If you are interested in volunteering please contact Wendy Bulloch at wendy@aitc.mb.ca on or before Friday August 25, 2006.
staff.matters is e-mailed bi-weekly on Wednesday afternoon to members and friends of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University of Manitoba. The bi-weekly news deadline is Tuesdays at 4:00 pm. Email Crystal Jorgenson with your news or get in touch with your department staff.matters rep:
- Agribusiness: Judy Powell 9259
- Animal Science and Entomology: Claire Hutchinson 6125
- Biosystems Engineering: Debby Watson 6033
- Food Science: Allison Cranmer 9621
- Plant Science: Bev Godard 8563
- Soil Science: Terry Ramm 8153