Thursday, October 25, 2012

Jacob wins first place!

Please join me in congratulating Jacob Rutz, a star undergraduate researcher working in our lab, for being awarded first prize in the undergraduate National Student Research Symposium Poster Competition at the Tri-Societies meetings this week. Way to go, Jacob! Jacob's poster, entitled "Potential Contributions of Legume Cover Crop Root Biomass to Labile Organic Matter Pools," was selected out of many worthy entries. In addition to his first-prize finish, Jacob was also awarded the Cross-Cultural Experience Program award for study abroad, which he will take advantage of in Namibia next semester.  See how happy he looks?  He should be! Jacob is a junior in the Agroecology program here at NCSU.

Jacob's poster!

This was hanging in the 'awards' area of the conference

ASA CSSA SSSA 2012 - here we come

Nearly 4,000 people attended the ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Annual Meetings, Oct. 21-24, Cincinnati, OH and we are proud to be part of them.

 
First dinner at a cute local restaurant, Melt.

Jacob's parents offered the place for us to stay for the entire time.
We were so grateful to stay in such a warm and friendly home. Thank you for the hospitality :)

Lots of people were interested in Matt's oral presentation.
Great talk, Matt!!

Mary presented her work in Malawi.

Erika and her popular poster.

Jacob with his first prize award winning poster.
Congratulations Jacob!!

Suzanne and her poster.

 
The best way to get the day started.
Coffee for the world!

Lunch time. Guess who got yelled at.

Taking a break.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

New soil scientists

Congratulations to Erika Larsen and Sarah Smith, our most recent M.S. of Soil Science graduates!

Sarah defended in mid September and welcomed her newest family member, baby Declan, into their family only a few days later. Super multi-tasking soil scientist mama! Sarah's thesis was entitled "Improving Professional Skills in Soil Science Outreach through Experiential Service-Learning Initiatives".

Erika defended her thesis, entitled "Evaluating Soil Carbon Pools and Losses in Long-Term Organic and Conventional Farming Systems" on October 2nd. Erika will be leaving us in a few short weeks to begin her new position as a fellow with the EPA in D.C.

We have really enjoyed having these two wonderful women as a part of our lab and will miss them both tremendously. Good luck you two!

 Erika's defense seminar

Sarah's congratulatory dinner!