· NEWS BRIEF · NEWS BRIEF · NEWS BRIEF · Dr. Doug Beegle, professor of agronomy, was an invited speaker at the Eastern Canada Nutrient Management Workshop at the University of Guelph in July. His presentation was titled, "What is a nutrient management plan?" He was also invited to speak on integrating phosphorus and nitrogen management at the farm level at the Info 99 Conference at Purdue University in August.
Beegle recently received a three-year grant to develop a nutrient management education program for the Pennsylvania State Conservation Commission. He and Dr. Andrew Sharpley, of the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, were also funded by the same group to evaluate phosphorus management approaches for Pennsylvania. The duo also published a 15-page Cooperative Extension publication entitled "Managing Phosphorus for Agriculture and the Environment."
Dr. Jean-Marc Bollag, professor of soil biochemistry, was an invited speaker at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in August. His talk was titled "Isolated enzymes involved in the transformation of xenobiotics." He and Dr. Jerzy Dec also presented contributions on detoxification of pesticides and their metabolites in soil and water by plant materials containing peroxidases and on the role of phenoloxidases in the transformation of pesticides in the soil.
Bollag was a keynote speaker at the June annual meeting of the Italian Society of Soil Science. He discussed the catalytic effects of mineral colloids and enzymes on the transformation of xenobiotic compounds in soil.
He also spoke on immobilization of pesticides in soil through enzymatic reactions at the Ninth European Congress on Biotechnology in Belgium.
Dr. Mary Ann Bruns, just-arrived assistant professor of agronomy / soil microbial ecology, was lead author on the book chapter, "DNA fingerprinting as a means to identify sources of soil-derived dust: Problems and potential." The chapter appears in Integrated Assessment of Ecosystem Health (Ann Arbor Press).
Dr. Swaranjit Singh Cameotra, of the Institute of Microbial technology in Chandigarh, India, has joined the Center for Bioremediation and Detoxification as a visiting scientist. He is working with Dr. Jean-Marc Bollag on the impact of biosurfactants on the microbial transformation of pollutants. Dr. Singh Cameotra is supported by a Biotechnology Overseas Associateship from the government of India.
Nobuhide Fujitake, associate professor of soil science at Kobe University in Japan, is also a visiting scholar at the Center for Bioremediation and Detoxification. He is working on the extraction of humic substances and bound residues after application of special chemical derivatization methods. Fujitake's visit is sponsored by Japan's Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth.
Dr. Jon Chorover, assistant professor of environmental soil chemistry, is project director on a three-year grant entitled "Interfacial soil chemistry of radionuclides in the unsaturated zone," which was recently funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Chorover and co-investigators Dr. K. G. Karthikeyan, postdoctoral environmental scientist, and Dr. Karl Mueller, associate professor of chemistry at Penn State, will investigate processes at soil particle surfaces that influence the migration of the radioactive pollutants cesium and strontium through saturated and unsaturated soils. These pollutants are particularly important at DOE waste sites where leaky storage tanks are proximal to vulnerable groundwater resources.
The National Science Foundation has recently funded an interdisciplinary graduate education and training program at Penn State entitled the Biogeochemical Research Initiative in Education (BRIE). The BRIE program brings together faculty in geosciences, biochemistry and molecular biology, soil science, and environmental engineering to conduct an interdisciplinary research effort on coupled biological and chemical processes in natural ecosystems. Drs. Jon Chorover and Jean-Marc Bollag represent the agronomy department on the grant. The objective of the BRIE program is to provide Ph.D. students with a background in microbiology, geochemistry, soil science, and engineering that will facilitate fruitful research at the interface between disciplines. The training grant, along with matching funds provided by Penn State, will provide support for approximately 30 doctoral students. The first graduate student in agronomy to enter the program is Keith Goyne,
a Ph. D. candidate in soil science. His research will address chemical reactions in soils that influence the retention and biodegradation of soil organic matter. Soil organic matter is increasingly recognized as a central component of the global carbon cycle, but the coupled biotic and abiotic factors regulating its bioavailability to soil organisms remain poorly understood.
Dr. Steven Fales, head of the department, facilitated a workshop in Madison, Wisconsin for the leadership of the Crop Science Society of America. The topic was "Membership: what it means and how to cultivate it in a changing society."
Dr. David Gustine, adjunct associate professor of crop science, presented a paper on grassland ecology for sustainable forage-livestock production systems in the Northeast.
Dr. Les Lanyon, professor of soil fertility, was an invited speaker at the Large-scale Animal Production and Human Health Colloquim at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore. He spoke about the current large-scale animal production system.
Lanyon also received the research award from the Northeastern Branch of the American Society of Agronomy.
A modular turf system based on research conducted by Andy McNitt, faculty instructor, was recently installed in the Baltimore Ravens' football stadium.
Dr. Barbara Pennypacker, associate professor of agronomy, recently was appointed a representative of the American Phytopathological Society to the International Congress of Plant Pathology for 1999-2000.
In August, Pennypacker was an invited speaker at the Global Soy Forum 99 / Midwestern Soybean Conference IV in Chicago. Her talk was titled "Management of Sclerotinia white mold."