The Auburn University College of Agriculture and Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station have announced their 2015 Faculty and Staff Award recipients, all of whom will be formally honored in a college/AAES awards ceremony in February.
Individual 2015 faculty awards and their recipients are:
- 2015 Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence—Joey Shaw, professor, Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences;
- 2015 Dean’s Award for Advising Excellence—Sushil Adhikari, associate professor, Department of Biosystems Engineering;
- 2015 AAES Director’s Research Award for Senior Faculty—Joseph Kloepper, professor, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology;
- 2015 Excellence in Extension and Outreach Award for Senior Faculty—Austin Hagan, professor, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology;
- 2015 Excellence in Extension and Outreach Award, Junior Level—Jesse Campbell, National Poultry Technology Center Extension housing specialist;
- 2015 Guthrie Award for Achievement in International Agriculture—David Weaver, professor, Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences;
- 2015 High-Impact Paper Award—Sushil Adhikari, Department of Biosystems Engineering.
Nineteen College of Agriculture faculty members who collectively obtained almost $10.6 million in extramural research grants and contracts in fiscal year 2014-15 are this year’s Dean’s Grantsmanship Award recipients. Grantsmanship Awards are presented each year to faculty members in the college who receive $300,000 or more in external funding.
The 2015 recipients, by department, school or institute, include:
- Associate professor Christy Bratcher, Department of Animal Sciences;
- Patricia Curtis, Auburn University Food Systems Institute director;
- Department of Biosystems Engineering professor and department head Steve Taylor and associate professor Sushil Adhikari;
- Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences associate professor Eve Brantley;
- Professors Henry Fadamiro, Joseph Kloepper, Austin Hagan and Ed Sikora and associate professor Leonardo De La Fuente, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology;
- Professors Allen Davis, Rex Dunham, Terry Hanson, John Liu and Stephen Szedlmayer; associate professor Eric Peatman; assistant professor Matt Catalano; and research fellow Steve Sammons, all in the School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences;
- Department of Poultry Science professor Ken Macklin.
A team led by food science professor Jean Weese and formed to help small businesses and aspiring food entrepreneurs in the state succeed has won the college’s 2015 Project Team Award–Faculty. In addition to Weese, who is in the Department of Poultry Science, College of Agriculture faculty on the Food Entrepreneur Project Team include animal sciences associate professor Christy Bratcher and fisheries, aquaculture and aquatic sciences professors John Jensen and Terry Hanson. Other team members are regional Extension agent Patti West, Small Business Development Center regional manager Lindsay Bridges and campus dining director Glenn Loughridge. Supporting staff members are Regina Crapps and Jacqueline Kochak in the Auburn University Food Systems Institute.
The 2015 Project Team Award in the Staff category, meanwhile, has gone to College of Agriculture student services administrative associate Satrina Kelley-Jordan, development coordinator Amanda Nims and accountant Misty Glazier in the business office in recognition of their efforts to ensure that the college’s annual scholarship program runs smoothly.
Development coordinator Nims and Amanda Martin, student services and alumni relations coordinator for the college, are co-recipients of the college’s 2015 Diversity Award.
Four other staff members are recipients of 2015 Employee of the Year Awards. They are:
- Poultry science communications and marketing specialist Ashley Wiskirchen—professional/managerial category;
- Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology student services coordinator Ashley Aston—administrative support category;
- Agricultural Land and Resource Management employee John Yarbrough— service/maintenance/skilled worker category;
- Brian Anderson, manager of the Department of Animal Sciences’ Swine Research and Education Center—teaching/research/outreach professional category.
All 2015 faculty and staff award winners receive cash awards and will be presented plaques during the college/AAES awards ceremony, set for Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, at 3 p.m. in the Auburn Alumni Center. Also recognized at the ceremony will be the College of Agriculture’s nine 2016 Outstanding Alumni Award recipients.
Those recipients, by department or school, include:
- State Sen. Clay Scofield, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology;
- Tom Bonner, Department of Animal Sciences;
- Danny Holmberg, Department of Biosystems Engineering;
- Donald Ball, Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences;
- Frank Randle, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology;
- Jeff McManus, Department of Horticulture;
- Amanda Rials, Department of Poultry Science;
- Stanley Cook, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences;
- Sally Credille, Agricultural Communications.
Mitchell Pate, a poultry science alumnus and current Poultry Research Farm Unit and Poultry and Animal Nutrition Center director, will receive the 2016 Alumni Service Award.
