2019 News Briefs
PublicationsAwards and
Honors Speaking
Invitations Book
Chapters
General News
- Press Release from New Jersey Turfgrass Association
130K raised at the Rutgers Golf Classic fund raiser held in May, at the Rutgers Center for Turfgrass Science. -
From Rutgers Today-February 18, 2019
Rutgers' List of Campus Plants, Animals, Other Species May be First in World
"...more than 1,600 kinds of animals, insects, plants and other life forms have been reported so far at 24 Rutgers campuses and properties across New Jersey as part of a new long-term Flora and Fauna of Rutgers University biodiversity project." Read full story: Rutgers list of plants animals and more. -
From Rutgers Today-January 22, 2019
The Real Doctor Pepper
Albert Ayeni grew up in Nigeria, where a meal seemed incomplete if it did not include a hot pepper. Now he is working to make Rutgers the go-to center for hot pepper research to appeal to New Jersey’s growing ethnic communities and remind them of home. Watch our video for more from the professor who oversees the exotic pepper breeding program at Rutgers-New Brunswick.
Publications
- Ribosome depurination by ricin leads to inhibition of endoplasmic reticulum stress–induced HAC1 mRNA splicing on the ribosome Received for publication, April 29, 2019, and in revised form, September 27, 2019 Published, Papers in Press, October 17, 2019, DOI 10.1074/jbc.RA119.009128 Michael Pierce, Diana Vengsarkar, John E. McLaughlin, Jennifer N. Kahn, and Nilgun E. Tumer
- Serpil Guran (2019) Options to feed plastic waste back into the manufacturing industry to achieve a circular carbon economy. AIMS Environmental Science, 6(5): 341-355. doi: 10.3934/environsci.2019.5.341.
- Yuan Li, Arend-Jan Both, Christian A. Wyenandt, Edward F. Durner, and Joseph R. Heckman. 2019. Applying Wollastonite to Soil to Adjust pH and Suppress Powdery Mildew on Pumpkin. HortTechnology. 19:1-10.
- Frazee L. J., Aronson, M. F. J, Kattge, J., & L. Struwe. 2019. Hardscape floristics: Functional and phylogenetic diversity of parking lot plants. Applied Vegetation Science. doi: 10.1111/avsc.12450
- Blake-Mahmud, J & L. Struwe. 2019. Time for a change: patterns of sex expression, health and mortality in a sex-changing tree. Annals of Botany https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcz037
- Pennerman, K., J.B. Scarsella, G-H. Yin, S.-ST. Hua, T.G. Hartman, J.W. Bennett. accepted. Volatile 1-octen-3-ol increases patulin production by Penicillium expansum on a patulin-suppressing medium. Mycotoxin Research
- Poulev, A. J.R. Heckman, I. Raskin, and F.C. Belanger. 2019. Tricin Levels and Expression of Flavonoid Biosynthetic Genes in Developing Grains of Purple and Brown Pericarp Rice. PeerJ.
- Joshi NC, Meyer, AJ, Bangash SAK, Zheng Z-L, Leustek T (2018) Arabidopsis γ-glutamylcyclotransferase affects glutathione level and root system architecture during sulfur starvation. New Phytologist https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15466
Awards and Honors
- The following grant was awarded to Dr. James Murphy and Dr. Bruce Clarke who received a notice from the Chapter Cooperative Research Program of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) on 17 Dec. 2019. This grant is in cooperation with the Golf Course Superintendents Association of New Jersey Foundation (GCSANJ) and New Jersey Turfgrass Foundation (NJTF).
Approximate grant period 2020-2021: $60,000 over two years Grant title: Optimizing Fungicide Programming for Dollar Spot Control in Bentgrass Fairways PIs: James A. Murphy, Bruce B. Clarke, Pingyaun Zhang (graduate student)
Description: Our program seeks to identify best practices that optimize the control of dollar spot, which is the most costly disease of golf course turf. We hypothesize that cultivar (turfgrass) susceptibility to dollar spot affects the frequency of actions needed to control the disease, and therefore cost. Additionally, further insights on the output of a weather-based model will optimize the timing of actions to control the disease. Specific objectives for this grant include evaluating 1) alternate interpretations of the output (risk index) from a weather-based model to reduce the number of fungicide applications while maintaining commercially acceptable disease control on cultivars that differ in susceptibility and 2) the effectiveness of curative threshold-based fungicide applications to control dollar spot across a range of cultivar susceptibility and subsequent economic impact. - Graduate student Hui (Eric) Chen received the Chris Stiegler Turfgrass Science Graduate Student Travel Award. This award was established as a way to honor Chris’ major contributions to the Turfgrass Science (C5) Division of the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) as a graduate student and to further encourage future scholars to participate in CSSA meetings. This award was received at the 2019 ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting | Nov. 10-13 | San Antonio, Texas.
- Graduate student Hui (Eric) Chen came in 2nd place in olf Turf Management Oral I competition: “Removal of Coarse Sand from Topdressing on Putting Green Turf” at the 2019 ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting | Nov. 10-13 | San Antonio, Texas.
- Also at the 2019 ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting | Nov. 10-13 | San Antonio, Texas.
Oral Presentation
First Place -Trent Matthew Tate, Shuxia Yin, William A. Meyer, Bruce B. Clarke, Daniel Ward and Lisa A. Beirn. “Anthracnose Disease in Fine Fescues”
First Place - Phillip L. Vines, Josh A. Honig, Jennifer Vaiciunas, Christine Kubik, B. Shaun Bushman, Eric N. Weibel1, William A. Meyer and Stacy A. Bonos. “A high-density genetic linkage map and quantitative trait locus in perennial ryegrass”
Second Place – William Errickson and Bingru Huang. “Physiological Effects of Endophytic Rhizobacteria on Creeping Bentgrass Tolerance to Heat and Drought Stress”
Third Place: Cathryn Chapman and Bingru Huang. “Physiological and Metabolic Effects of gamma-Aminobutyric Acid and Proline for Promoting Drought Tolerance and Post-Drought Recovery in Creeping Bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera)”
Poster Presentation
Second Place - Phillip L. Vines, Josh A. Honig, Jennifer Vaiciunas, Christine Kubik, B. Shaun Bushman, Eric N. Weibel, Bruce B. Clarke, William A. Meyer and Stacy A. Bonos. “Quantitative trait locus mapping for dollar spot resistance in perennial ryegrass”
Second Place – Stephanie Rossi and Bingru Huang. “Physiological Effects of Seaweed Extracts for Controlling Summer Bentgrass Decline” - James A. Murphy recognized with the Fred V. Grau Turfgrass Science Award by the Crop Science Society of America. This award is presented in recognition of significant career contributions in turfgrass science during the most recent 15 years. https://www.crops.org/awards/view/92
- Joe Clark, Research Farm Supervisor at Horticulture Farm 2 (Cook Campus), has been selected to receive an Honorary American FFA Degree at the 2019 National FFA Convention & Expo on Friday, Nov. 1, 2019 in Indianapolis, IN.
- Lena Struwe receives American society of plant taxonomists’ 2019 Peter Raven award for exceptional outreach to non-scientists. Read more here.
- Graduate student Oren Rabinowitz was one of the Richard T. Rosen Memorial Scholarship recipients for the year 2019-2019 academic year in the amount of $2,000. This award recognizes research and academic merit of graduate students working on the identification, characterization, bio-activity, and social and economic impacts of health-promoting compounds in plants and foods.
- Andrea Gallavotti received a collaborative 4 year grant, totaling $2,4M entitled “TRTech-pgr: Mapping and functional characterization of cis-regulatory module variation in plants”. The award commences August 1 and involves collaborators from NYU and American University.
- Juan Dong, associate professor of plant biology at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, is co-principal investigator of a three-year NSF grant of $410,784 for the project, "Collaborative Research: Multiscale Characterization and Dynamics Modeling of Stomatal Function in Plants," for the period July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2022. Qingze Zou, professor in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, is principal investigator.
- Hadeel Almalaki won a travel award from the Medical Mycology Association of American to attend the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Francisco, California, June 2019 for her poster: Almaliki, E. Drazanin, N. Goraya, A. Angela, R. Sadovnik, J. W. Bennett. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Produced by the Human Fungal Pathogens Are Toxic to the Genetic Model Drosophila melanogaster (Poster presentation, ASM Microbe 2019).
- Lu Wang received a travel award to attend the 2019 MidWest Plant Cell Dynamics Meeting at Penn State University.
- Andrea Gallavotti was the recipient of the 2019 M. Rhoades Early-Career Maize Genetics Award from the Maize Genetics Executive Committee during the 61st Annual Maize Genetics Conference in St Louis, MO, March 14-17, 2019. Read more.
- Graduate student Phillip Vines was awarded the Musser Foundation's 2019 Award of Excellence. This award is given each year to the top graduate student in Turfgrass Science in the US.
Read Story: www.golfcourseindustry.com/article/phillip-vines-musser-foundation/phillip-vines-musser-foundation/
Speaking Invitations and Conferences
- Serpil Guran was invited to be a panel speaker at MABEX Mid-Atlantic Biomass Energy Conference on September 17-18, 2019 Maryland.
- Serpil Guran was invited to moderate a panel on ZeroWaste Conference September 24-25, 2019 Newark/NJ.
- Serpil Guran is partnering with NJComposting Council and organizing an event titled “Organics Waste Management Summit” to be held on 10/1/019 at the EcoComplex.
- Joan Bennett gave two talks at the University of Texas – San Antonio: “the molds that ate my house” and "The XX factor: women in science, engineering and medicine."
- Heckman, J.R. 2019. Parallels between the Organic and Raw Milk Movement. Pet Food Justice Conference. Raritan Community College, Bridegewater, NJ.
- Joan Bennett gave an invited lecture titled "The XX factor: women in science, engineering and medicine" at the McGovern Medical School, Texas University Health Science Center, Houston on Feb 11th.
Books and Book Chapters
- Stenn, K. & L. Struwe. 2019. The colleters of Pentas (Rubiaceae: Gentianales): Morphology, anatomy, and search for their function. Botany 2019 conference, Tucson, AZ, July 27-31, 2019.
- Struwe, L. 2019. iNatur`alist as a tool for biodiversity engagement, formal and informal education, and campus species inventories. Botany 2019 conference, Tucson, AZ, July 27-31, 2019.
- Helsel, R., N. Howe, M. King, L. Struwe, & D. Waters. 2019. The life after digitization: examples from the lichen and bryophyte collections at Chrysler Herbarium (Rutgers University, New Jersey. Third Annual Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference, New Haven, CT, June 10-12, 2019.
- King, M., J. Borden, D. Jaikumar, G. Donato, R. Helsel, E. Popp, K. Svoboda, E. Tillett, M. Furci, & L. Struwe. 2019. The broadest impacts: The inadvertent and unexpected building of life skills from biodiversity collection digitization in Rutgers’ undergraduate Herbarium Army. Third Annual Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference, New Haven, CT, June 10-12, 2019
- Struwe, L., M. Aronson, T. Besancon, M. Heberling, N. Howe, & M. King. 2019. Fostering engagement and discovery using digital data: examples from iNaturalist and other observation platforms and herbarium specimen data. Third Annual Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference, New Haven, CT, June 10-12, 2019
- Heckman, J.H. and M. Keating. 2019. The History of the “New” Organics. 13 pages. In Organic Food, Farming and Culture, Chrzan and Jacqueline Ricotta (editors); Bloomsbury, London.