Crop Sciences Newsletter #103, July 15, 2004

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

...Dr. Robert G. Hoeft, with support of the faculty in the Department of Crop Sciences and recommendation of the departmental advisory committee, will provide leadership as Interim Head of the Department until a new head is named at the completion of a national search. The appointment was effective July 1, 2004. Dr. Hoeft is a senior Crop Sciences faculty member with more than 30 years of service

...In recent elections the following were chosen: Germán Bollero, Mike Gray, Fred Kolb and Jerald Pataky to the Departmental Faculty Advisory Committee; Mike Gray, Jerald Pataky and Michael Plewa to the Promotion and Tenure Committee, and, Donald Ort, Martin Uribelarrea (graduate student) and Nathan Schnettgoecke (undergraduate student) to the Departmental Advisory Committee. Congratulations all!

...Congratulations to those who earned a place on the “Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, Fall 2003": Bianca Rios, Germán Bollero, Patricia Brandau, Jeff Bunting, Bob Dunker, Wayne Pedersen and Dean Riechers.

...Congratulations to Kevin Steffey, Dave Feltes and David Voeqtlin, who received one of the 6 awards presented nationally by the American Distance Education Consortium. ADEC is a membership organization of major land grant universities for the purpose of sharing and providing resources across state lines via distance technology. Their Soybean Aphid Telenet program was selected because the information was of economic importance to rural farming and the use of technology was a cost-effective and immediate way to deliver the information to remote locations. ADEC also recognized the cooperation and participation of experts from four schools and four states.

...Congratulations to those receiving FREC awards: Fred Below, $63,999 for the project “Role of Roots in Improving Nitrogen Management of Continuous Corn”; Steve Ebelhar, $31,712 for “Effects of Tile Drainage on Crop Yields and Nutrient Management in Southern Illinois”, $22,867 for “Soil Ph and Manganese Effects on Yield of Roundup Ready Soybeans”, $24,868 for “Effects of Annual Versus Biennial Phosphorus and Potassium Applications in Corn Soybean Rotation”, and $38,423 for “The Use of Variable Rate Technology (VRT) and Yield Mapping for Optimizing Fertilizer Recommendations for Corn and Soybeans”; Bob Hoeft, $61,486 for “Spatial and Temporal Variations in Illinois N Soil Test Values” and $19,762 for “Synopsis Impact of Soil Processing on Variability of Analytical Results”; Emerson Nafziger $11,559 for “Managing Continuous Corn for High Yields” and $19,758 for “Assessing Variability in Corn Response to N Rate”; and, Lyle Paul $10,789 for “Assessing Variability in Wheat Response to N Rate and Timing”.

...Other grant awards include Fred Kolb, who received $78,099 from USDA for “Development of Scab Resistant Soft Red Winter Wheat Varieties”; Gustavo Caetano- Anolles, $164,000 for “Evolution of RNA Structure”; Eric Adee, $5,854 for “Uniform Fungicide Trial for Scab on Wheat in Illinois”; Kevin Steffey, $17,000 from Agrigenetics for the 2004 Cooperator Agreement; Mohammad Babadoost, $9,000 from USDA/IR-4 for “A National Agricultural Program: Clearance of Chemicals & Biologics for Minor or Special/Pesticides”, $25,000 from Nestle Food for “Management of Phytophthorea blight of Processing Pumpkins” and, $10,000 from Brandt Consolidated for “Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Biofungicide for Control of Phytophthorea blight of Vegetables”; Stephen Farrand, $358,191 for “Cell-Cell Signaling in Microbe-Host Interactions”; and, Susan Ratcliffe, $30,373 from USDA/IPM for An Integrated Pest Management Facilitator for the North Cental Region. Congratulations to all!!

...Congratulations to Cesar Solorano-Torres, who was awarded a $150 travel grant award from the North Central Division of the American Phytopathological Society to help defray the expenses of participating in the NC-APS meeting in St. Paul, MN.

FROM OUR OFFICE TO YOURS

...If you wish to suppress your home address and/or home phone in the Student/Staff Directory, please visit www.uiuc.edu (click on Student/Staff Directory forms under Announcements) to submit a form online. A new form must be completed even if you have submitted a suppression request in the past. Deadline: September 17, 2004.

...UI retirees or allied agency employees who wish to be included in the Student/Staff Directory must visit www.uiuc.edu (click on Student/Staff Directory forms under Announcements) to complete an online form. Due to budget constraints, we are no longer able to process paper forms. Deadline: Sept. 17.

...International students and visitors. The announced end of the State Department's visa revalidation service in Washington, D.C. will not affect your status in the U.S., your extensions, changes of status or your ability to get a visa at U.S. embassies and consulates. This service, called Stateside Renewal, allowed individuals with expired C, E, H, I, L, O, and P visas in their passports to renew the visas by mail to the State Department rather than at an embassy. This allowed the person to make a trip outside of the U.S. without the worry or hassle of applying for the visa abroad because the visa had already been obtained. Most of our international visitors who were eligible to use this service did not use it because it required mailing the passport to Washington and waiting as long as four months to get the new visa. After July 16th the Visa Office will no longer accept Stateside Renewal applications. Please remember that your status (H-1, J-1, etc.) is not the same as a visa. A visa is placed in your passport by a U.S. consular official and it allows you to enter the country. Having an expired visa does not affect your status as long as you remain in the States. Feel free to contact our office at 3-8225 or 3-8226 if you have questions.

DATES TO REMEMBER

July 15, Field Day at Belleville, research center operated by Southern Illinois University

July 22, Field Day at Brownstown

August 3, Field Day at DeKalb

August 5, Field Day at Dixon Springs

August 17, Field Day at Monmouth

August 19, Agronomy Field Day at South Farms

August 23, Field Day at Orr Center

September 8, Field Day at Ewing Field

PERSONALS

...Belated congratulations to Tim and Emelie Mies on the arrival of their new son, Nicholas Eastman in April.

PUBLICATIONS

Please share your most recent publications with our readers. Submit citations of publications in standard format to Linda Ingram, and we’ll publicize your scholarship department-wide.

Hartman, G.L., Y.H. Huang, and S. Li. 2004. Phytotoxicity of Fusarium solani culture filtrates from soybean and other hosts assayed by stem cuttings. Australasian Plant Pathology 33:9-15.

Hill, C.B., Y. Li, and G.L. Hartman. 2004. Resistance to the soybean aphid in soybean germplasm. Crop Science 44:98-106.

Li, S., N.C. Kurtzweil, C.R. Grau, and G.L. Hartman. 2004. Occurrence of stem canker (Diaporthe phaseolorum var. meridionalis) on soybean in Wisconsin. Plant Disease 88:576.

Vuong, T.D., D.D. Hoffman, B.W. Diers, J.F. Miller, J.R. Steadman, and G.L. Hartman. 2004. Evaluation of soybean, dry bean, and sunflower for resistance to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Crop Science 44:777-783.