James Holleman, BS AGRO – AGI

Laura Kolb, BS AGRO – TMO

Paul Lanfear, BS AGRO – TMO

Jared Mariott, BS AGRO – SCM

Ashley Newsome, BS AGRO – SCM

Kyle Schwertner, BS AGRO – SCM

Congratulations Graduates!

Department of Soil and Crop Sciences · TAMU 2474 · College Station · TX · 77843-2474 · 979-845-3041

May 2011 Aggie AgendaDEPARTMENT OF SOIL AND CROP SCIENCES

Class of 2011

Kiley Book, BS AGRO – SCM

Tim Dutton, BS AGRO – TMO

Paige Graves, BS AGRO – SCM - continuing MS in Hor ticulture at TAMU

Brady Green, BS AGRO – SCM

Reagan Hejl, BS AGRO – TMO

Jacob Hohertz, BS AGRO – SCM

Graduate StudentsKey: AGRO – Agronomy, SOSC – Soil Science, FSTC – Food Science and Technology

PLBR – Plant Breeding, MEPS – Molecular & Environmental Plant Sciences

Ana Barrientos, MS-SOSC (Dr. Youjun Deng)

Derek Husmoen, MS-SOSC (Dr. Don Vietor) – Leuven, Belgium for 3 months doing grant research

Srirama Krishareddy, PhD-AGRO (Dr. Scott Finlayson)

Mohan Kapanigowda, PhD-PLBR (Dr. Bill Payne)

Kerry Mayfield, PhD-PLBR (Dr. Seth Murray)

Suchismita Mondal, PhD-PLBR (Dr. Dirk Hays)

Daniel Packer, PhD-PLBR (Dr. Bill Rooney) - Plant Breeder at Ceres, Inc.

Dustin Tittle, MS-AGRO (Dr. Larry Redmon)

Undergraduate StudentsKey: TMO – Turf Management, SCM - Soil & Crop Management, AGI - Agro Industry

DSSDSS

We’re on the web: soilcrop.tamu.edu

Mark Hall is our under-graduate advisor for students who major or minor in Agronomy and Plant and Environmental Soil Science.

Dr. Wayne Smith is the Associate Head and Graduate Coordinator.

Dr. David Baltensperger is the department head for Soil and Crop Sciences.

Graduation Edition May 2011

Congratulations to our Graduates! It is an exciting time with many graduates transitioning to careers and graduate school. This spring we have 12 under-graduate Agronomy majors with 7 in Soil and Crop Management, 4 in Turf Management and 1 in Agro Industry. We will also have 3 MS students, two of which focused in Soil Science and 1 in Agronomy. There are four receiv-ing PhD’s in Plant Breeding and one in Agronomy. We extend our best wishes to each as they move forward. Past graduates have gone on to be-come farmers, golf course superinten-dents, business owners, faculty at many Universities, federal agency scientists and leaders of Soil and Crop Science organizations around the world. Exam-ples include our speaker at this year’s scholarship banquet, Dr. Terry Moore, with BP; Charles Ring, farmer and rep-resentative to the Texas Corn Produc-ers Board; and Mark Hussey, Dean of the largest College of Agriculture in the U.S. We have high expectations that this year’s graduates will be the lead-ers of providing food, feed, fiber and fuel in a safe and aesthetically pleasing environment. I want to thank each of you for making the transition to a much reduced state budget as positive as possible. There are no programs in the department that have escaped impact and yet all are working to identify the most posi-tive outcomes possible and to maintain focus on our top priorities. During the next few weeks we will be organizing to begin a strategic planning process to make sure we are confident that our vision is fulfilled. If anyone would be in-terested in chairing this process, please visit with me or a member of the faculty advisory committee ASAP. This will be the first priority following the election of the new members to our faculty advi-sory group.

This past month has provided the op-portunity to visit the research and exten-sion centers for evaluations with trips still planned to Stephenville and Beau-mont. I have also had the opportunity to meet with many of the campus faculty and to develop the departmental review for the administration. Congratulations should be relayed to students, staff, fac-ulty and everyone that interacts with the department. It has been a very excit-ing year with new disclosures, patents, publications, grants and awards. We are making a difference from bioenergy, to turf, to water, to food security, to fiber quality, to fundamental understanding of our soils, plants and water systems. Congratulations!We continue to progress rapidly with our efforts to redesign our curriculum. The presentation to the entire faculty brought fourth several questions, but clearly demonstrated how far we have come. While many hurdles remain as we take it through the system, our core process is near completion. Thanks to all, but especially the P&T committee, Jim Heilman, Debra Fowler and Holly Jarvis. I was able to participate in the Soft Wheat Meetings that our faculty hosted in Dallas as well as individual meet-ings with leaders of cotton, corn and peanut organizations while in Lubbock. We also had opportunities to meet with companies to present our ideas on fu-ture research on castor, mine recla-mation, forages, turf , cotton, sorghum and wheat. Leadership from the Nobel foundation visited campus and we are exploring a broad arena for increased cooperation and linkage with them. As I write this, I am returning from the CSSA board meetings in Madison Wisconsin. I found it especially noteworthy how many times Texas A&M Soil and Crop Scientists were identified as leaders for activities that stretch across the A-C-S societies.

Continued Pg. 3

Kiley Book will be working for Crop Quest doing crop con-sulting in the Uvalde, Texas area.

Tim Dutton will be joing the sales team at Truegreen in Cyfair working in agronomic sales and services.

Brady Green will be staying with us to work on his masters in plant breeding with Michel Baring.

Reese Holleman will be working at the King Ranch Turf-grass Farm in Milican.

Kyle Schwertner will be working with Crop Production Ser-vices, out of Roscoe.

Future Plans!

Page 3

Reagan Hejl

Paige Graves

Dr. Wayne Smith

Justin Ng

Kerry MayfieldM o h a n k u m a r Kapanigowda

Srirama Krishnareddy Cullen Dustin Tittle

Jessica, Heather, Whitney, Benjamin

Derek Husmoen Daniel Packer

Many have taken the opportunity to participate in background discussion on Feed the Future including a seminar lead by Dr. Elsa Murano. While there is a formal committee charged with thinking about how A&M might structure itself to be a player in this activity, it is critical that it be driven by grass roots ideas of how we can make a difference and what would be needed to help us make a big difference by providing the scholarship, hu-man resources, science and leadership to feed a rapidly growing population. Dr. Travis Miller and I are both on the committee, so please provide us with ideas as you have them. Next week, we host the National Association of Plant Breeders here on campus. This will provide an opportunity to showcase the A&M capacity in plant breeding, but also will set the stage for discussions on how to provide long term support for public plant breeding. Thanks to Kathy Ferguson for keeping the group organized and to all faculty that have helped bring this meeting to Texas.

Have a great summer!

Continued from pg. 2

Page 4Graduation Edition May 2011

Welcome - New Baby

Congratulations to proud grandparents, Glenda and Lynn Kurten on the birth of their second grandchild. Hattie Kay Nash born March 25, weighed 6 lb. 12 oz. and 19 ¼ long. Proud parent are Amanda and Kevin Nash.

2011 Calendar Events

Emily Stiegler 1st Birthday

Happy

Birthday!

Emily

May 13 Graduation Reception at the Heep Center in Rm 440 - Noon to 1:30 p.m.

May 20 O. D. Butler Field Day

May 22-25 National Association of Plant Breeders Annual Conference - Hosted by Soil and Crop Sciences

May 27 Small Grains Advisory Meeting

June 21 Stiles Farm Field Day - Thrall, TX.

July 10-12 Texas Turfgrass Conference - Hyatt Lost Pines

Sept. 10-14 AAIC Annual Meeting - Fargo, North Dakota

Oct. 5 Turfgrass and Landscape Field Day - College Station

April 27, 2011 was Emily’s first birthday and she had a great time.