Stories

June 23, 2020

MU Faculty Part of Gene Editing Task Force

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) recently announced an 11-person Gene Editing Task Force, which includes two individuals from the University of Missouri: Bhanu Telugu (associate professor) and Londa Nwadike (food safety state specialist, MU Extension). The 11-person task force is comprised of scientists and industry leaders who will map out recommendations for regulating this emerging genomic technology in animal agriculture with appropriate safeguards and procedures.
Recently, three CAFNR professors, in the area of plant biology, were honored with Extraordinary Professor appointments in the Department of Biotechnology at UWC – Bob Sharp, Curators’ Distinguished Professor in the Division of Plant Sciences and director of the Interdisciplinary Plant Group (IPG); David Mendoza-Cózatl, associate professor in the Division of Plant Sciences; and Scott Peck, professor in the Department of Biochemistry.

June 22, 2020

An Extraordinary Honor

For more than 30 years, the University of Missouri System and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Cape Town, South Africa, have been collaborating through the University of Missouri South African Education Program (UMSAEP). The focus of the partnership is to advance mutual understanding between the institutions’ faculties and foster cooperative research, teaching and service projects – and for decades UMSAEP has delivered on the goal of aiding South Africans disadvantaged by their government’s former apartheid policies. Researchers in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) have played an important role in the partnership, including…
Kamal Yadav, middle, pictured during the 2019 College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) Column Award for Distinguished Alumni award night. Yadav is pictured with CAFNR Vice Chancellor and Dean Christopher Daubert (left) and Michael Chapman, chair of the Department of Biochemistry.

June 22, 2020

An Entrepreneurial Spirit

When Kamal Yadav came to the United States from India in 1961, he had never seen snow before. Working toward his master’s degree in biochemistry at the University of Missouri, Yadav stepped out of his apartment early one snowy morning during his first semester and didn’t make it very far before slipping and hurting his back. The injury forced Yadav to miss several classes, which caught the eye of his PhD advisor George B. Garner. Garner found where Yadav lived and went there right away to check on him. Yadav appreciated his advisor’s visit – and was shocked when Garner…
Michaela Thomson (left) and Devesh Kumar were two of four Mizzou ‘39 Award recipients in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.

June 22, 2020

An Outstanding Recognition

Each year, the Mizzou Alumni Association Student Board selects 39 outstanding seniors for its annual Mizzou ‘39 Award. Mizzou ‘39 recipients are chosen for their academic achievement, leadership and service to Mizzou and the community. In the spirit of service that was the cornerstone of the 1839 founding of the University of Missouri, the award is presented each spring. This year, the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources had four students receive the Mizzou ‘39 Award, two within the Department of Biochemistry –  Devesh Kumar and Michaela Thomson. Devesh Kumar As a Columbia native, Kumar knew all that…

June 15, 2020

Matthew Lucy Receives ADSA Award of Honor

The American Dairy Science Association® (ADSA®), the international organization of educators, scientists and industry representatives who are committed to advancing the dairy industry, recently announced the winners of professional and student awards for 2020. Matthew Lucy, professor in the Division of Animal Sciences, received the ADSA Award of Honor. The award recognizes unusually outstanding and consistent contributions to the welfare of the Association or distinguished service to the Association. The award is primarily for services to the American Dairy Science Association.

June 11, 2020

Q&A With Teresa Davis

What are your job duties/job responsibilities in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources? My role is to support Christopher Daubert, CAFNR’s Vice Chancellor and Dean, and work collaboratively in a professional and friendly way with internal and external constituents to assist the dean and our college in furthering the mission and vision of CAFNR’s strategic plan “Drive to Distinction.” There is never a dull moment! How long have you worked in CAFNR (and at MU)? I began working at Mizzou in 1997 in the College of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction. I moved to the Office of…
Robert Sites demonstrates his famous juggling of elephant dung during the Thailand Study Abroad program. Sites has led the program for 14 straight years, and was one of two Mizzou professors to earn the inaugural MU Study Abroad Teaching Excellence Award in 2020.

June 8, 2020

An Educational Experience

For 14 straight years, Robert Sites has led University of Missouri students to Thailand for an educational study abroad experience focused on biodiversity and conservation. The 3-week program, which takes place over winter break, coincides with Thailand’s dry season – the best time of the year to be in the country for biodiversity and conservation projects. When Sites, a professor of entomology in the Division of Plant Sciences, joined the Thailand Study Abroad program in 2001, it was tough for him to imagine the experience turning into what it would eventually become. “I got involved with the CAFNR Thailand study…
Researchers at the University of Missouri and the University of Georgia recently published a paper related to an underutilized source of resistance in the soybean genotype Peking. That source is linked to two polymorphisms in serine hydroxyl-methyltransferase 8 (SHMT8). SHMT is an enzyme important for folate-mediated 1-carbon metabolism, a universal metabolic process. David Korasick, a postdoctoral fellow who was part of the John Tanner lab and mentored by Tanner, Lesa Beamer and Melissa Mitchum, produced five crystal structures of different states of the SHMT8 tetramers from the SCN-susceptible and SCN-resistant cultivar. He combined protein biochemistry, protein biophysics and X-ray crystallography approaches to tackle the problem.

June 3, 2020

Fighting a Financially Taxing Pathogen

A unique collaboration between plant biologists and biochemists is looking to tackle the most financially taxing pathogen in the soybean industry. Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is the most detrimental and costly pathogen affecting soybean production in the United States, with more than $1 billion lost annually due to SCN infection. Management of this pathogen relies on the use of SCN-resistant soybean cultivars, a strategy that has struggled in recent years due to nematodes showing resistance to those cultivars. Researchers at the University of Missouri and the University of Georgia recently published a paper related to an underutilized source of resistance…

June 2, 2020

Harvey James Receives Richard P. Haynes Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award in Agriculture, Food, and Human Values

Harvey James, professor of agricultural and applied economics, and associate director in the Division of Applied Social Sciences, was recently honored with the 2020 Richard P. Haynes Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award in Agriculture, Food, and Human Values from the Agriculture, Food & Human Values Society (AFHVS). The award honors persons, who in their careers, have made outstanding contributions towards realizing the goals of the AFHVS through research, teaching, extension, public service or public policy. Nominations highlighted the impact of James’ research about fairness, trust, conflict, democratic governance and morality and his courses that focus on the ethical dimensions of agriculture…
Sanborn Field with corn

June 2, 2020

IPG PhD Students and Postdocs Selected for Webinar Series

Six University of Missouri Interdisciplinary Plant Group (IPG) PhD students and postdocs have been selected for “Summer CROPS Talks,” a webinar series for plant science researchers. This new series extends from a developing cooperation between the Center for Plant Science Innovation at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the Plant Sciences Institute at Iowa State and the IPG. The series provides a great opportunity for graduate students and postdocs to engage with their peers at the other institutions. The platform provides an opportunity to share graduate student and postdoc research with the plant science community. The format will be a 20-minute…