Newsbriefs continued from page 5      Pennypacker recently presented papers at two conferences. At the Joint Meeting of the Potomac and Northeastern Divisions of the American Phytopathological Society in Annapolis, she discussed research done in collaboration with Dr. Marvin Risius, professor of plant breeding, on row spacing as a tool in the management of Sclerotinia white mold in soybean. She spoke about the impact of soybean agronomic management on location of Sclerotinia white mold lesions at the Joint Annual Meeting of the American Phytopathological Society and the Canadian Phytopathological Society.      Yuanhong Zhu, Ph.D. candidate in soil science, received the first place award in the graduate student presentation competition (soil science) at the 1999 Northeastern Branch of the American Society of Agronomy Meeting hosted by the University of Guelph in July.      The Penn State Board of Trustees approved a revised undergraduate soil science curriculum for the department. This included a name change to environmental soil science, plus new requirements and five new courses.	Graduates of the previous soil science program most often found jobs in small environmental, geological, and engineering consulting firms. In recognition of the role of soil science in land uses other than conventional agriculture, the curriculum was broadened to give students skills in geographic information systems, conducting environmental and hydrogeologic assessments, and delineating wetlands. These skills will enable graduates to work on environmental issues such as strip-mine reclamation, site remediation, and water pollution. Contact Dr. Dan Fritton for more information - ddf@psu.edu; phone (814) 863-1143. Please note the following conferences that will feature presentations by many Turfgrass Science faculty. Please contact the PA Turfgrass Council for further information; phone (814) 863-3475; fax (814) 863-3479; http://www.PATURF.ORG/. Penn State Golf Turf Conference, State College, 11/9/99 - 11/11/99. Eastern PA Turf Conference and Trade Show, King of Prussia, 1/11/2000 - 1/13/2000. Northeastern PA Turf School and Trade Show, Wiles Barre, 1/27/2000. Western PA Turf Conference and Trade Show, Monroeville, 2/9/2000 - 2/11/2000.	Recent referred journal articles: Gianfreda, L., F. Xu, and J.-M. Bollag. 1999. Luccases: A useful group of oxidoreductive enzymes. Bioremediation Journal 3, 1-25. Park, J.-W., J. Dec, J.-E. Kim, and J.-M. Bollag. 1999. Effect of humic constituents on the transformation of chlorinated phenols and anilines in the presence of oxidoreductive enzymes or birnessite. Environmental Science and Technology 33, 2028-2034. Bruns, M. A. , J. R. Stephen, G. A. Kowalchuk, J. I. Prosser, and E. A. Paul. July 1999. Comparative diversity of ammonia oxidizer 16S rRNA gene sequences in native, tilled, and successional soils. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Pennypacker, B. W. and M. Risius. 1999. Environmental sensitivity of soybean cultivar response ot Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Phytopathology. 89:618-622. Pennypacker, B. W. 1999. First report of sudden death syndrome caused by Fusarium solani f. sp. glycines on soybean in Pennsylvania. Plant Disease. 83:879.
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