We congratulate these SEBS and NJAES faculty and staff on their accomplishments, appointments and awards below. For university-wide announcements, please visit the Rutgers Faculty and Staff Newsletter.
2024
Thomas Molnar, associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology, is the principal investigator of a four-year grant totaling $170,000 from the Ferrero Hazelnut Company (Ferrero HCo), a division of global sweet-packaged food company the Ferrero Group, to support the development of hazelnut varieties that can resist Eastern Filbert Blight through genetic improvement.
Xenia Morin, associate teaching professor, Department of Plant Biology, and Serpil Guran, director of Rutgers EcoComplex, who were recognized with an Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) 2024 Environmental Achievement Award for the series, “Food Choices for a Small Planet,” on food waste reduction at ANJEC’s 2024 Environmental Congress on Friday, September 27 at Rowan College of Burlington City in Mount Laurel, NJ. Morin and Guran were recognized alongside series collaborators, East Brunswick Sustainability Task Force, East Brunswick Public Library, and the Friends of East Brunswick Environmental Commission.
Cesar Rodriguez-Saona, extension specialist in entomology, Department of Entomology, is the principal investigator of a two-year, $199,783 grant from the USDA Crop Protection and Pest Management program for the project, “Improving Management of a Key Insect Pest of Blueberries Through Optimization of Pollination Services,” from September 1, 2024, to August 31, 2026.
Karen Ensle, educator and department head, Department of Family and Community Health Sciences, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Union County, won the 2024 NEAFCS Hall of Fame Award—the most prestigious honor for Extension Family and Consumer Science professionals nationwide, and was inducted into the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (NEAFCS) Hall of Fame in Tucson, Arizona.
Elisabeth Sikes, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coasts Sciences, was elected as an AGU Fellow, joining a distinguished group of 54 individuals in the 2024 Class of Fellows. AGU, the world’s largest Earth and space science association, bestows this honor annually to a select number of individuals who have made exceptional contributions. AGU Fellows are recognized for their scientific eminence, demonstrated through breakthroughs, discoveries or innovations that advance the Earth and space sciences.
Andrea Gallavotti, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, is the principal investigator of a three-year project, “Collaborative Research: PlantTransform: Morphogenic-based mechanisms of maize regeneration,” funded at $1,088.678 by the National Science Foundation for the period Jan 1, 2025, to December 31, 2027. Co-principal investigators are David Jackson, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Bastiaan Bargmann, Virginia Tech, and Margaret Young, Elizabeth City State University.
Oscar Schofield, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences (DMCS), was named Fellow of the Marine Technology Society (MTS), one of the highest accolades an MTS member can achieve. Schofield, who chairs DMCS, is also a Life Member of MTS.
Yanhong Jin, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, served as a distinguished speaker at the “Workshop on Transforming Agri-food Systems: Global Perspectives.” Jin presented on the topic, “Impact of GMO on agricultural productivity in a global perspective” at the workshop, which was hosted on August 8 by the Centre for International Trade and Development at the School of International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India.
Judith Storch, Distinguished Professor of Nutritional Sciences, won the 2025 Avanti Award in Lipids for outstanding research contributions in the area of lipids by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB). The Storch lab studies lipid traffic in cells, with particular emphasis on the proteins that bind long-chain fatty acids, monoacylglycerols and cholesterol. Storch has served on ASBMB’s Journal of Biological Chemistry editorial board and the ASBMB Publications Committee. She is on the steering committee of the ASBMB Lipid Research Division. Storch is a fellow of ASBMB and the American Society for Nutrition. The award includes presenting a lecture at the 2025 ASBMB annual meeting April 12-15. Storch’s talk is titled, “Functional analysis of intracellular lipid-binding proteins.”
Sal Mangiafico, agricultural agent, RCE of Salem and Cumberland counties, received a 2024 Distinguished Service Award (for individuals with more than 10 years of Extension service) and Timothy Waller, agricultural agent, RCE of Cumberland County, received a 2024 Achievement Award ((for individuals with less than 10 years of Extension service) from the National Association of County Agricultural Agents at the association’s annual meeting on July 17.
Beverly Tepper, professor in the Department of Food Science, is principal investigator on the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant – USDA-AMS-TM-SCBGP-G-22-0003 – “Growing the New Jersey Wine Industry: Rutgers Grape & Wine Science Certificate Program, 2022-25”, funded at $40,000. The grant supports the certificate program that provides foundational knowledge in grape growing and vineyard management, wine production and operations, and wine marketing through classroom instruction, hands-on workshops and networking with working professionals. The program addresses two critical needs in NJ: to fill current openings in the industry for entry-level workers and to attract new entrepreneurs who wish to develop new grape farming and wine production businesses.
Don Schaffner, Distinguished Professor and Extension Specialist, and Chair of the Department of Food Science, is the principal investigator of the Food Microbiology Risk Reduction project funded at $214,429 by Rutgers Dining Services. This project collects data used by risk managers to assure the safety of foods served in Rutgers University dining halls and cash operations.
RCE Water Resources Program was awarded $35,000 from the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium (NJSGC) for the continuation of the Sea Grant Extension Program for the period February 1, 2024, to January 31, 2025. NJSGC funding is made possible by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which released full funding to the consortium for the 2024 – 2025 award year.
Steven Handel, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolution, was recognized as a “Distinguished Fellow of the Botanical Society of America (BSA),” on June 19 at the Botany conference held in Grand Rapids, MI. The highest honor bestowed by BSA, distinguished fellows are chosen based on their outstanding contributions to the mission of the scientific society and “have demonstrated excellence in basic research, education, public policy, or who have provided exceptional service to the professional botanical community.”
Oscar Schofield, Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is the principal investigator of the project, “UConn-NASA-Sea Ice, Phytoplankton, Antarctic Peninsula,” funded at $426,974 by Seaforestation Co.
Yair Rosenthal, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is the principal investigator of the project, “Collaborative Research: Long-term Perspective on the Holocene CO2 Conundrum: The Role of Southern Westerly Winds,” funded at $508,160 by the National Science Foundation. Co-Principal investigator is Samantha Bova, Assistant Professor, San Diego State University.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences, received an award of $45,922 for the period May through December 2024 from Hamilton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, for “Hamilton Township Stormwater Management Program: 2024 Partnership Agreement.”
Changlu Wang, extension specialist in entomology, Alvaro Toledo, assistant professor, Department of Entomology, Robert Corrigan, RMC Pest Management Consulting and Josephine Bartlett, Pest Management Department, New York City Housing Authority, are investigators on a $973,893 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Healthy Homes Technical Studies program. The three-year grant is for the project, “Health Risks of Norway Rats (Rattus norvegicus) and Developing IPM Strategies to Address Interior Invasions of Norway Rats in Low-Income Housing in New York City.”
Nilgun Tumer, Distinguished Professor, Department of Plant Biology, is the principal investigator of a five-year National Institute for Health R01 grant of $3,494,012 for the project, “Small molecule inhibitors targeting the ribosome binding site of ricin and Shiga toxin.” The grant period is March 1, 2024 to Jan 31, 2029.
Oyo Kwate, associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology, has been selected to receive the Urban Affairs Association’s (UAA) 2024 Best Book in the Field of Urban Affairs Award for White Burgers, Black Cash: Fast Food from Black Exclusion to Exploitation. It was among 64 books based on rigorous research on an urban issue within any national context that were nominated this year for the UAA award. Kwate also won the 2023 Betty and Alfred McClung Lee Book Award from the Association for Humanist Sociology.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, was awarded funding of $63,753 from The Nature Conservancy for the project, “Fair Street Green Street: Implementation of Green Infrastructure for Paterson, New Jersey,” for the period March 1, 2024 to August 7, 2026.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, has received a two-year contract for $61,594 from the City of Jersey for the project, “Addressing Environmental Injustice and Combined Sewer Overflows with Green Infrastructure in Jersey City,” starting February 9, 2024.
Brooke Maslo, associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, was presented with the American Society of Landscape Architects’ New Jersey Chapter Award, in the Research and Communication category, for “Creating Flood-Resilient Landscapes: A Primer for New Jersey Communities.” A guide for municipalities to help redesign flood-prone landscapes, the publication is the product of eight years of research by Maslo and a resilience team that includes an interdisciplinary group of collaborators from both Rutgers and South Dakota State University.
Rutgers University Center for Ocean Observing Leadership (RUCOOL) received The Oceanography Society’s (TOS) biennial Ocean Observing Team Award for its “innovation and excellence in sustained ocean observing for scientific and practical applications.” The citation on the team’s certificate recognizes RUCOOL for transforming oceanography by sharing their pioneering sampling platforms, sensing methods, and their integration in models and education.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, was awarded a one-year, $45,000 grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation to provide technical support to New Jersey communities to adopt green infrastructure strategies and implement projects designed to address stormwater pollution, improve water quality, and reduce flooding. The grant period is January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024.
Chitra Ponnusamy, assistant teaching professor and Undergraduate Program Director of Food Science, and Nrupali Patel, assistant teaching professor and Undergraduate Program Director in Plant Science, are co-PIs of a $15,000 Rutgers Global Faculty Innovation in Global Learning grant to develop a winter study abroad course, “Applying immersive learning to rural agro-food issues: Study Abroad in Southern India.”
2023
Lily Young, Board of Governors Professor and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, has been named the 2023–24 recipient of the Daniel Gorenstein Memorial Award, which was established in 1993 by the family, friends, and colleagues of Daniel Gorenstein to commemorate his innovative mathematical research, skillful and enthusiastic exposition of his field, and wise and devoted service to Rutgers. The award was first presented in 1994 and is given each year to a faculty member noted for both outstanding scholarly achievement and exceptional service to the university.
Ning Zhang, professor in the Department of Plant Biology, is the 2023-2024 Program Committee Chair of the Mycological Society of America and is organizing the society’s annual conference in Toronto, Canada, in June 2024.
The following faculty and staff were presented with 2023 Excellence Awards by the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. These awards spotlight individuals and teams whose creativity, innovation, engagement, and impact stand out as exemplars for how we achieve our mission as a land-grant university.
Teaching Excellence Award – Cara Cuite
Department of Human Ecology
Sustained Career Teaching Excellence Award – Marci Meixler
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources
Early Career Research Excellence Award – Mary Whelan
Department of Environmental Sciences
Sustained Research Excellence Award – Oscar Schofield
Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences
Faculty DEI Excellence Award – Suzanne Sukhdeo
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources
Outreach and Community Engagement Excellence Award – Anita Bakshi
Department of Landscape Architecture
International Excellence Award – Early Career – Nrupali Patel
Department of Plant Biology
International Excellence Award – Sustained Career – Lena Struwe
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources
Team Excellence Award – Earth Day Every Day Team
Michele Bakacs, Middlesex & Union counties, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Sal Mangiafico, Cumberland County, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Amy Rowe, Essex & Passaic counties, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Steve Yergeau, Ocean & Atlantic counties, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Doug Zemeckis, Ocean & Atlantic counties, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Staff Excellence Award – Michael Pierce
Department of Plant Biology
Staff DEI Excellence Award – Brianna Ortega
Office of Human Resources
James Simon, Distinguished Professor, and Andrew Wyenandt, Extension Specialist, Department of Plant Biology, were recognized on November 15 with the Edison Patent Award in the Agriculture Category by the Research & Development Council of New Jersey.
James Simon, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Biology, was presented with the 2023 Distinguished Service to New Jersey Agriculture Award for outstanding research contributions to New Jersey’s farming industry by the New Jersey Farm Bureau (NJFB) at its 105th Annual Meeting held November 13-14.
Xiaomeng Jin, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is principal investigator of the three-year project, “Using satellite observations to diagnose the long-term evolution of nonlinear ozone-NOx-VOC-aerosol chemistry over global urban areas,” funded at $436,941 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for the period 2023 – 2026.
Michael Kennish, professor emeritus in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is lead author on Climate Change and Estuaries, which showcases the value of estuaries and the threats posed by climate change. The comprehensive volume consists of 32 chapters and nearly 700 pages, and highlights climate change effects on estuarine ecosystems from local, regional, and global perspectives.
Alan Robock, Distinguished Professor of Climate Science in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is principal investigator (PI), and Lili Xia, assistant research professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is co-PI on the project, “Impacts of Nuclear War on Agriculture and Global Food Security,” funded by the Future of Life Institute at $500,000 for the period September 1, 2023 – August 31, 2026.
Chitra Ponnusamy, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Food Science, and Nrupali Patel, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Plant Biology are co-PIs of the grant, “Medicinal Plants and Foods in India,” funded by the Rutgers Global Faculty Innovation in Global Learning at $5,000 to develop a Study Abroad course.
William Hallman, professor in the Department of Human Ecology, was appointed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to the advisory committee of the new Climate Crossroads Initiative, which is designed to harness the full expertise of the Academies to address the climate crisis.
Loredana Quadro, professor in the Department of Food Science, received the Norman Krinsky Award for research excellence in nutrition and disease prevention from the International Carotenoid Society at the 19th International Carotenoid Society Symposium in Toyama (Japan) July 8-14.
Daniel Van Abs, professor of professional practice for water, society, and the environment in the Department of Human Ecology, was awarded the Edmund W. Stiles Award for Environmental Leadership by the Watershed Institute. The annual award recognizes a community leader who demonstrates outstanding leadership, dedication and passion in advancing the cause of environmental protection and stewardship.
Tracy Anthony, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, was awarded the Osborn and Mendel Senior Investigator Award by the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) and the ASN Foundation, in recognition as one of the nutrition field’s top researchers, clinicians, and educators.
Aparna Zama, associate teaching professor and director of the undergraduate program in Animal Sciences, and Thomas Leustek, professor in the Department of Plant Biology, lead the Rutgers portion of the five-year, $4.5 million U.SDA-NIFA NextGen grant, “The Animal Science Discovery (ANSCId) Program: A Summer Experiential Learning, Career Development, and Scholarship Pipeline Between LAGCC and Rutgers.”
Karyn Malinowski, founding director of the Equine Science Center at Rutgers, received the 2023 Distinguished Service Award from the Equine Science Society (ESS), the highest honor that ESS bestows on its members. The award recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of equine science and recipients must also have a record of significant accomplishments in teaching, research and extension or service as it relates to the advancement of the equine sciences and horse industry.
Kenneth McKeever, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and associate director of Research at the Rutgers Equine Science Center, was elevated to the rank of Fellow of the Equine Science Society in recognition of “distinguished service to the horse industry and to the Equine Science Society.
Karl Matthews, professor in the Department of Food Science, was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award in Food Science/Food Microbial Safety to Mauritius for the 2023-2024 academic year by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
Steven Handel, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolution, was awarded the American Society of Landscape Architecture (ASLA) LaGasse Medal, which recognizes “notable contributions by individuals to the management and conservancy of natural resources and/or public landscapes.” Handel was among the individuals and organizations recognized by ASLA as its 2023 Honors Recipients, some of the most noteworthy landscape architecture practitioners and firms nationwide.
Jason Grabosky, professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources and extension specialist in urban forestry, was elected to serve on the Board of Directors for the International Society of Arboriculture, which serves the tree care industry.
Ning Zhang, professor in the Department of Plant Biology, is principal investigator, and David Robinson, NJ State Climatologist, NJAES, and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geography, is co-PI, of the project, “Climate monitoring in Pine Barrens ecosystem to study the impact of climate change on biodiversity,” funded at $14, 953 by Rutgers Global.
Matthew Newman, department head, 4-H Youth Development, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Monmouth County, was recognized with the Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence. The award honors newly-promoted and tenured (as of July 1, 2023) faculty members who have made truly outstanding contributions to teaching during their early years at Rutgers.
Grace K. Saba, associate professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, was recognized with the Faculty Scholar-Teacher Award, which honors tenured faculty members who have made outstanding synergistic contributions in research and teaching.
Sara Elnakib, chair of the Department of Family and Community Health Sciences (FCHS), Jennifer Shukaitis, FCHS educator, and Christine Zellers, FCHS educator, are co-PIs of the project, “Promoting physical and mental health and wellness: Expanding the scope of NJ Safe Schools Program” funded at $25,000 by the New Jersey Health Foundation. Derek Shendell, professor in the School of Public Health, is the PI.
Michelle Infante-Casella, agricultural agent and department head, RCE of Gloucester County, has been appointed to a national Network Expanding Taskforce (NET) to assist the IR-4 Project in expanding its network of research and extension personnel. The taskforce will be documenting the pest management needs of specialty crop community and will also help expand IR-4’s network to engage additional representation from the 1890 and 1994 land-grant universities.
Judith Storch, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, was named a 2023 Fellow of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) in recognition of “outstanding commitment to the ASBMB through participation in the society in addition to accomplishments in research, education, mentorship, diversity and inclusion, advocacy, and service to the scientific community.”
Mary Whelan, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was awarded a NSF CAREER Award from the National Scientific Foundation (NSF) for the project, “Constraining land carbon uptake on regional and global scales by enabling the interpretation of two decades of trace gas measurements.” The CAREER award is among the NSF’s “most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”
Hugh Roarty, project manager, Rutgers Center for Ocean Observing Leadership (RUCOOL), is the principal investigator for the grant, “Ship Detection Upgrades for Rutgers 5 MHz HF Radar Sites,” funded at $44,595 by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, LLC.
Bingru Huang, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Biology is the principal investigator for the grant, “Mitigating Bentgrass Summer Decline Utilizing Endophytic Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria,” funded at $95,756 by the U.S. Golf Association.
Lily Young, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for distinguished contributions to engineering, “for implementing work on anaerobic microbial metabolism enabling remediation of organic and metal contaminants in the environment.”
Thierry Besançon, associate extension specialist in weed science for specialty crops, received the 2023 Outstanding Educator Award from the Northeastern Weed Science Society (NWSS) and the 2023 Outstanding Weed Science Journal Reviewer Award from the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA). In addition, he was elected vice president of the NWSS board and joined the WSSA Public Relations Committee.
John McLaughlin, assistant research professor in the Department of Plant Biology, was awarded a one-year, $72,359 grant from the USDA-ARS/US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative (USWBSI) for the project, “Barley Exosome Cataloging by Proteomics and RNAseq.” This represents a continuation of USWBSI funding to identify plant genes that enhance resistance to Fusarium graminearum and to study the interaction between the fungus and plant previously awarded to the laboratory of Nilgun Tumer, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Biology.
William Hallman, professor and chair, Department of Human Ecology; Malin Pinsky, associate professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources; and Rachel Winfree, professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, are among nine Rutgers to be elected to the 2023 class of fellows for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Carol Byrd-Bredbenner, Distinguished Professor of Nutritional Sciences and director of the graduate program in Nutritional Sciences, was one of 20 nationally recognized scientists appointed to serve on the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Dietary Guidelines serve as the foundation for national nutrition programs, standards, and education in the U.S.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, was awarded a one-year, $45,000 grant from the Dodge Foundation to provide technical support to New Jersey communities to adopt green infrastructure strategies and implement projects designed to address stormwater pollution, improve water quality, and reduce flooding. The grant period is January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023.
2022
Alan Robock, Distinguished Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, has been appointed to a four-year term as Editor of Reviews of Geophysics, starting December 2022.
James Simon, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Biology is PI, and Beverly Tepper, professor in the Department of Food Science is co-PI, of the Soli Organics (formerly Shenandoah Growers), Harrisonburg, VA. Shenandoah – Rutgers Collaborative Agreement for 2022 – 2025. The award total is $1,386,000, while the Sensory sub award is $101,700.
Xiaomeng Jin, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is co-principal investigator of the project, “Impacts of precursor emissions from wildfires on Ozone-NOx-VOC chemistry over urban areas,” funded at $301,980 by NOAA for the period 2022 – 2024.
Beverly Tepper, professor in the Department of Food Science, was awarded a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant of $40,000 for the project, “Growing the New Jersey Wine Industry: Rutgers Grape & Wine Science Certificate Program,” for 2022 – 2025.
Michael DeLuca, director of the Rutgers Aquaculture Innovation Center, and manager, JC NERR, is the principal investigator on a $357,401 grant from NOAA for the project, “Implementation of a Resilient and Sustainable Coastal Campus at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve.” The funding will support renovation of the Cousteau Center to accommodate growing use by researchers, students and coastal stakeholders.
Michael DeLuca, director of the Rutgers Aquaculture Innovation Center and manager, JC NERR, is the principal investigator of a $1,639,050 grant from NOAA, for the project, “Research, Education and Monitoring at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve.” Funding will support research, education, coastal training and stewardship programs at the reserve.
Michael De Luca, manager of Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JC NERR) and Andrea Habeck, stewardship coordinator, JC NERR, are investigators on a State of New Jersey grant of $96,000, for the project, “Barnegat Bay and Great Bays Resilience Observing Network: Tracking the Changing Environment to Inform the Management of Estuarine Resources.” Funding will support the integration of climate change research, resiliency planning and monitoring data to inform the proactive adaptation and management of estuarine resources.
David Robinson, New Jersey State Climatologist, NJAES, and Distinguished Professor, Department of Geography in the School of Arts and Sciences, is principal investigator of a $85,067 grant, “A comparative assessment of NOAA and NASA snow products,” funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Joel Flagler, department head and county agricultural agent, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Bergen County, was honored by the New Jersey Nursery and Landscape Association with its 2022 Distinguished Service Award. This award recognizes the contributions of an individual who has given their time and resources to support and grow the horticulture industry in New Jersey.
Kit Yam, professor in the Department of Food Science, is co-investigator of a new award for the project, “Development of Controlled Release In-transit Ripening Technology for Delivering Ready-to-Eat Fruits to Distribution Centers for Domestic and International Markets,” funded by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Nazir Mir, associate member of the Food Science graduate faculty, is principal investigator on the project, which runs from 9-1-2022 to 08-31-2024.
Donald Schaffner, Distinguished Professor of food science and extension specialist in the Department of Food Science, was named a Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis for his “substantial achievement in science or public policy relating to risk analysis and substantial service to the society.”
Gediminas Mainelis, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and member of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI), is principal investigator of the project, “Advanced Personal Nasal Sampler (PNS),” funded at $191,690 by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, was awarded $133,770 by the US Geological Survey for “New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute FY2022 104(b) Program.” The one-year project, from 9/1/2022 – 8/31/2023, was based on his role as director of the New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute.
Thomas Grothues, associate research professor, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is principal investigator of a four-year, $1,089,530 award from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management—part of the U.S. Department of the Interior—for the project, “Sand ridge structuring of fish habitat function on the Continental Shelf of New Jersey.” Grothues is also the research coordinator at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, which is managed by NJAES.
Pal Maliga, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Biology and the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, is the principal investigator of the grant, “TRTech-PGR: Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of the plastid genome,” funded at $1,462,775 by the National Science Foundation plant genome program.
Ning Zhang, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, is principal investigator of a four-year, $750,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for the project, “Fungi in the pine barrens ecosystem – biodiversity, systematics and function,” for the period 2022-2026.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, was awarded $95,000 as part of the FY22 Sea Grant Coastal Adaptation and Resilience Program for Green Infrastructure Implementation in New Jersey’s Overburdened Communities. The18-month award runs from 8/1/2022 – 1/31/2024.
Karyn Malinowski, founding director of the Equine Science Center at Rutgers and professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, received the 2021 Harness Horse Youth Foundation Service to Youth Award on August 5 during a ceremony at the Meadowlands Racetrack.
Alan Robock, Distinguished Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, received the 2022 Future of Life Award from the Future of Life Institute “for reducing the risk of nuclear war by developing and popularizing the science of nuclear winter.” Robock shares the award with fellow nuclear winter pioneers John Birks, Paul Crutzen, Jeannie Peterson, Carl Sagan, Georgiy Stenchikov, Brian Toon and Richard Turco.
Meredith Melendez, agricultural agent, RCE of Mercer County, is the principal investigator of a three-year, $400,000 grant from USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture for the project, “Planting the Seeds: Teaching the value of food safety to new and beginning farmers,” for the period July 2022-June 2025.
Debashish Bhattacharya, Distinguished Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, was awarded the 2022 Miescher-Ishida Prize by the International Society of Endocytobiology and the University of Tübingen, Germany, for his many contributions to the field of plastid endosymbiosis, determining the place of algae in the tree of life, investigating the biology of extremophiles and for bringing high-throughput genomics methods to address many questions in algal evolution.
Elisabeth Sikes, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, was awarded the 2022 SCAR Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR).
Yanhong Jin, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics; Kessler McCoy-Simandle, teaching instructor, and Natalya Voloshchuk, assistant teaching professor, in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology; Chitra Ponnusamy, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Food Science; Kimberly Russell, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources; and Ethan Schoolman, assistant professor in the Department of Human Ecology, are among the 2022-23 Cohort of Provost’s Teaching Fellows announced by the Office of the Chancellor-Provost.
Carey Williams, equine extension specialist and professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, was the recipient of the 2021 Governor’s Award for Horseperson of the Year at the 65th Annual New Jersey Breeders Awards Celebration at the Horse Park of New Jersey on June 1.
Beverly Tepper, professor, and Xin Luo, teaching assistant, were awarded the 2022 Endel Karmas Excellence in Teaching Award as Outstanding Professor and Outstanding Teaching Assistant, respectively, for the Department of Food Science.
Megan King, Collections Manager for the Chrysler Herbarium and master’s degree student in the Ecology and Evolution Graduate Program, is the 2022 recipient of the Vicki A. Funk Graduate Research Grant from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists.
Dan Van Abs, professor of professional practice in the Department of Human Ecology, has been awarded a grant of $200,000 from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, to help update the New Jersey Statewide Water Supply Plan.
Alvaro Toledo, assistant professor in the Department of Entomology, is the recipient of a 2022-2023 Global Health Seed Grant awarded by the Rutgers Global Health Institute. The award, valued at $10,000, is for the project, “Ectoparasites and Diseases of Poverty in Low-Income Urban Communities.”
William Hallman, professor and chair of the Department of Human Ecology, was appointed co-chair of the Climate Communications Initiative (CCI) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. CCI coordinates efforts across the National Academies to facilitate rapid and effective communication of evidence-based insights to the public and critical decision makers.
Ning Zhang, professor in the Department of Plant Biology, is principal investigator on a grant from the National Science Foundation for the project, “An online global monograph of Magnaporthales–evolution, taxonomy, biogeography and biology of the rice blast fungus and allies.” The one-year project is valued at $120,160.
Joseph Heckman, extension specialist in soil fertility in the Department of Plant Biology,is principal investigator on a grant from the Northeast USDA-SARE for the project, “Foliar Nickel fertilizer nutrition to enhance cranberry yield and decrease fungicide use.” The three-year grant, valued at $199,987, began March 1, 2022, and ends March 31, 2025. Investigators include James Polashock, assistant research director at the Philip E. Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension, and Alon Robinovich, Earth & Environmental Sciences program at Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, Newark.
Xenia Morin, associate teaching professor in the Department of Plant Biology, received an award from Rutgers Graduate School of Education for her work for the 2021 Graduate School of Education’s Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation Reaccreditation Team. Morin represented Ag Education on the Teacher Advisory Group.
Peter Guarnaccia, professor in the department of Human Ecology, was honored with the Clement A. Price Human Dignity Award from the Committee to Advance our Common Purposes. The award, named after the late Rutgers’ Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor, recognizes “outstanding individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary achievement and commitment to promoting and practicing diversity, inclusion, equity, and access within the university and/or in partnership with community organizations.”
Harini Sampath, associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, was awarded The Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence and Kay Bidle, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences was awarded The Faculty Scholar-Teacher Award, which honors tenured faculty members who have made outstanding synergistic contributions in research and teaching. They were among 31 individuals to receive 2021-22 universitywide faculty year-end excellence awards.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, was awarded $47,500 by Hamilton Township, New Jersey, for “Hamilton Township Stormwater Management Program: 2022 Partnership Agreement,” for the period April through December 2022.
William Hallman, professor and chair of the Department of Human Ecology, is the principal investigator on the project, “Public Attitudes Toward the Use of Gene Drives in Agriculture and the Values that Drive Them,” funded at $500,000 by USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Gal Hochman, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, is principal investigator on the project, “Decarbonizing the Electricity Grid,” funded by USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture, in the amount of $597,312.
Elizabeth Sikes, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, was elected to a two-year term as vice president of the Geochemical Society, a scientific organization that promotes understanding of geochemistry by bringing together scientists who apply chemistry to solve problems in the earth system, geology, and cosmology.
Paul Breslin, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, is the principal investigator on the project, “BBG: Brain Reward from Oral Metabolic Signaling of Carbohydrates: Implications for Sugar Reduction,” funded at $60,000 by the Rutgers Office Research.
Sara Elnakib, Department of Family and Community Health Sciences educator and department head, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Passaic County; Ethan Schoolman, assistant professor in the Department of Human Ecology; and Shauna Downs, assistant professor in Rutgers School of Public Health, Department of Health Systems and Policy, are co-PIs on the project, “People, Plants, and The Planet: A Multi-Method Study to Develop, Implement & Evaluate a Food & Climate Change Intervention to Empower Adolescents to Make Healthy & Sustainable Plant-Based Food Choices.” Part of a more than $5 million USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture funding program for Fiscal 2021, the Rutgers project was awarded $298,290 to develop and pilot test a food, human health and climate health intervention to reduce the prevalence of obesity and associated chronic diseases among adolescents.
Cesar Rodriguez-Saona, extension specialist in entomology at the PE Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension, is the principal investigator of a three-year Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant of $199,868, for the project, “Exploring Novel Natural Products for the Development of Push-Pull Systems to Manage Spotted-Wing Drosophila.” The project ends 2-28-2025.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, was awarded $500,000 from the William Penn Foundation for Phase 2+ of the Delaware River Watershed Initiative to continue green infrastructure studies in the Kirkwood-Cohansey Cluster, February 15, 2022 – February 14, 2025.
Julie Lockwood, professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, was appointed Interim Director of the Rutgers Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (EOAS) beginning Feb. 3.
Pamela McElwee, professor in the Department of Human Ecology, was named one of three co-chairs by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) to lead work on a multi-year, international scientific assessment of the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food and health – coined the ‘Nexus Assessment.
Max Häggblom, Distinguished Professor and chair in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, and Julie Lockwood, professor and chair in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, were elected to the newest class of fellows for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Dipak Sarkar, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and founding director of the Endocrine Program at Rutgers, has been recognized as an Expertscape world expert in pro-opiomelanocortin, ranked in the top 0.1% among more than 25,000 published scholars worldwide writing on the topic between 2012-2022.
2021
County agricultural agents Stephen Komar (Sussex and Rutgers SARE State Coordinator), Michelle Infante-Casella (Gloucester), and William Bamka (Burlington) were awarded a $40,000 USDA SARE Professional Development Program grant to develop the “New Jersey Commercial Hemp Field Production Guide,” which was completed in December 2021.
Joseph Brodie, Offshore Wind Research Lead and director of Atmospheric Research at the Rutgers Center for Ocean Observing Leadership, is co-principal investigator of a $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation awarded to Rutgers and Wayne State University.
Lisa Auermuller, assistant manager of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JC NERR), and past President of the National Estuarine Research Reserve Association (NERRA) from 2017-2020, is the 2021 recipient of the NERRS-NERRA Annual Award for Outstanding Contribution. JC NERR, which is managed by Rutgers NJAES, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is one of the 29 national estuarine reserves created to promote the responsible use and management of the nation’s estuaries through a program combining scientific research, education and stewardship.
Stephanie Murphy, director of Rutgers Soil Testing Lab, and Mark Robson, Distinguished Professor of plant biology, are co-authors of a study titled, “Ecosystem Service Valuation Approaches and Carbon Mitigation Considerations for Garden State Agriculture,” which explores how New Jersey’s plants and soils can help to absorb and store carbon dioxide from greenhouse gas emissions.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, was awarded a grant of $31,250 from the Newark Housing Authority for Green Stormwater Infrastructure Design for Hyatt Court Housing Complex for the funding period January 3, 2022 to September 30, 2022.
Nicholi Vorsa, professor in the Department of Plant Biology, was named a 2022 recipient of the Service to Industry Award by the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association (WSCGA). The award is given to individuals for their work on behalf of the WSCGA and the Wisconsin cranberry community.
Yair Rosenthal, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is co-author of the study, “Cyclic evolution of phytoplankton forced by changes in tropical seasonality,” published in the journal, Nature.
Wesley Kline, agricultural and resource management agent with Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cumberland County, was awarded the New Jersey Farm Bureau Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award for 2021 for his “knowledge and abilities as an educator are a source of food production assistance not only throughout New Jersey but also overseas in Central America.”
Hildegaard Link, assistant teaching professor and director of the SEBS Sustainability minor, and Susan Oldenburg, GIS and research support specialist in the Office of Advanced Research Computing and the New Brunswick Libraries, were selected by ArcGIS, the premium Geographic Information System (GIS) software application, to participate in a pilot program beta testing the ArcGIS Image tool.
Rutgers New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center and the NJAES Office of Research Analytics were awarded $100,000 by the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation to support the further development of a climate hazard data visualization and mapping tool to determine the needs of populations most vulnerable to health inequities caused by climate change.
William Errickson, RCE agent (Monmouth County), Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, was presented the 2021 Educator of the Year Award by the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association.
Timothy Waller, RCE agent (Cumberland County), Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, was presented the 2021 Educator of the Year Award by the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association. Waller was also recognized with the 2021 Distinguished Service Award by the New Jersey Nursery and Landscape Association.
Ines Rauschenbach, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, received The Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching, which is awarded annually to non-tenure-track, full-time faculty members in the arts and humanities, sciences, and social sciences who have demonstrated outstanding teaching skills in classroom instruction, clinical instruction, curriculum development, or mentoring.
Rutgers weather station, which is managed by the Department of Environmental Sciences and, in earlier years, the Department of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, was honored by NOAA’s National Weather Service as a recipient of its 2021 Honored Institution Awards for “125 years of service and providing outstanding weather service to the nation.” Rutgers has maintained a weather station on campus as part of the Cooperative Observer Program since Jan. 1, 1896, with the current location at Rutgers Gardens on the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus since 1978.
Harini Sampath, assistant professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and director of lipidomics at New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health, is the principal investigator of the project, “The role of intestinal SCD1 in regulating metabolic health,” funded by the NIH – National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. The five-year award, valued at $1,958,160, is funded from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2026.
Brooke Maslo, associate extension specialist in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, received the Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence as part of the Universitywide Faculty Awards for 2020-21. The fellowship honors newly-promoted and tenured (as of July 1, 2021) members of the faculty who have made truly outstanding contributions to teaching during their early years at Rutgers.
Luanne Hughes, Family and Community Health Sciences educator, received a one-year SNAP-Ed grant of $1,519,472 from the New Jersey Department of Health, Division of Family Health Services. The grant funds significant outreach by providing direct and indirect education with youth, adults, seniors, and families. It also funds collaborations with schools, faith-based organizations, and small retail food stores to implement policy, system, and environmental changes strategies that promote health to the communities they serve.
Lisa Rodenburg, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of the Graduate Program in Environment Sciences, is the principal investigator of a $507,300 Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support students pursuing a doctoral degree in Environmental Sciences at Rutgers.
Oscar Schofield, chair in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is principal investigator, and Michael Crowley, MARACOOS technical director, are working with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System (MARACOOS) on a $1,542,076 cooperative agreement funded through NOAA to collect unique ocean and coastal data that is transformed into information products that support jobs, the economy, safety and well-being for the more than 78 million people living, visiting, and working in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Janice McDonnell, Science Engineering & Technology Agent, Department of 4-H Youth Development, and Sage Lichtenwalner, research programmer, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, are investigators with colleagues from the University of Missouri-Columbia in a $750,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop online tools for researchers to engage their communities and society in their scientific research, also known as broader impacts. Ten universities will collaborate in the project including University of California-Merced, University of Texas-Dallas and University of Nebraska-Lincoln to help field test the tools.
Brooke Maslo, associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, is principal investigator of a $268,081 grant to field-test a promising method of treating environmental reservoirs of Pseudogymnoascus destructans, the pathogen that causes white-nose syndrome in bats. The grant was awarded through the Bats for the Future Fund, with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as Southern Company and the Avangrid Foundation.
Daniel Van Abs, professor, and Karen O’Neill, associate professor, Department of Human Ecology, are co-PIs for a grant of $305,000 from the William Penn Foundation of Philadelphia. This grant funds the second phase of a project to identify all government expenditures for the purposes of water quality protection and improvements in the Delaware River Basin, from 2014 through 2021.
A team comprising members of Rutgers Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis, Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program, the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, and South Jersey Land and Water Trust, has been awarded a $220,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Awards to implement green stormwater improvements in the Upper Salem Valley Watershed.
Tracy Anthony, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, is principal investigator of a five-year grant (2021-2026) for the project, “Homeostatic Responses to Amino Acid Insufficiency,” funded by the National Institutes of Health in the amount of $2,686,804.
Alan Robock, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was selected by the American Geophysical Union to present the prestigious Stephen Schneider Lecture, which “annually and recognizes outstanding scientific accomplishments in global environmental change and in communicating scientific results to the public. The lecture honors the life and work of climatologist Stephen Schneider, an extremely influential scientist who received extensive recognition for his research, policy and outreach efforts related to climate change.” The presentation will be made at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December 2021.
Mark Miller, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is principal investigator of the project, “Mesoscale Organization in Cumulus-Coupled Marine Stratocumulus,” funded by the U.S. Department of Energy in the amount of $634,555.
Malin Pinsky, associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, is principal investigator of the project, “NSF Convergence Accelerator Track E: Regional climate change projections to enable equitable ocean planning for the blue economy,” funded by National Science Foundation in the amount of $749,997.
Max Häggblom, Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, is principal investigator of the project, “Dimensions US-China-South Africa: Establishing genetic, phylogenetic and functional mechanisms that shape the diversity of polar and alpine soil microbiomes,” funded by National Science Foundation in the amount of $1,494,294.
Bingru Huang, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Biology, is principal investigator of the project, “Mobile Remote Sensing and Artificial Intelligence-Guided Precision Management Program for Turfgrass Water Conservation,” funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture in the amount of $3,999,741.
Debashish Bhattacharya, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, is principal investigator of the project, “EDGE CMT: Functional characterization of known and ‘dark’ genes that underlie the coral heat-stress phenome,” funded by National Science Foundation in the amount of $509,125.
Elizabeth Wright-Fairbanks, graduate assistant in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, has been named the recipient of the 2021 Walter Munk Scholar Award and Commemorative Lecture, which is jointly sponsored by the Walter Munk Foundation for the Oceans and the Marine Technology Society. Established in 2019, the award honors renowned oceanographer Walter Munk for his significant contributions to the study of oceanography.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, received a two-year, $84,607 grant from the New Jersey Department of Treasury, Division of Property Management & Construction for the Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Partnership.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, was awarded a two-year grant of $106,397 from the New Jersey Water Supply Authority for the Spruce Run and Mulhockaway Creek Watershed Restoration and Protection Plan Research Program.
Bingru Huang, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Biology, was appointed the Editor-in-Chief for Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) for a three-year term, from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2024.
The Chrysler Herbarium at Rutgers, which includes Prof. Lena Struwe, director, and Megan King, assistant curator, won the inaugural Botany Trivia game in competition against several other university and museum teams at the Botany 2021 Virtual! Conference held on July 23.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, received a two-year grant worth $170,000 from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for Development of Watershed Restoration and Protection Plans for Miry Run Watershed and Doctors Creek Watershed.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, received a one-year grant of $25,000 as part of the FY2021 Sea Grant COVID-19 Response grant program for “Enhancing the Green Infrastructure Champions Program for a Virtual Format.”
Bonnie McCay, Professor Emerita, Department of Human Ecology, was appointed to a three-year term on the Science Advisory Board of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Ximing Guo, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and shellfish geneticist at Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, received the Honorary Life Member Award from the National Shellfisheries Association for “exemplary service to the association or to the profession.”
Bruce Crawford, State of New Jersey Program Leader for Home and Public Horticulture, was presented a 2021 Award of Excellence, the highest honor of the National Garden Clubs, Inc. (NGC). The Award of Excellence is presented annually to exceptional individuals, organizations or institutions that advance NGC’s goals and purposes.
Mark Robson, Rutgers Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor and professor in the Department of Plant Biology, has been named the 2021 recipient of the University’s Daniel Gorenstein Memorial Award, which is given each year to a faculty member noted for both outstanding scholarly achievement and exceptional service to the university.
Cara Cuite, assistant extension specialist in the Department of Human Ecology, is principal investigator of a USDA-NIFA grant of $24,178 for the project, “NJ Rutgers Cooperative Extension Immunization Education and Outreach,” effective May 1, 2021 to April 30, 2022.
George Carman, Board of Governors Professor of Food Science and founding director of the Rutgers Center for Lipid Research at the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health, has been named a fellow in the inaugural class of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, an honor bestowed only on the society’s most distinguished members. Fellows are recognized for their meritorious efforts to advance the molecular life sciences through sustained outstanding accomplishments in areas such as scientific research, education, mentorship, commitment to diversity, and service to the society and scientific community.
Joan Bennett, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Biology, was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in April 2021. Bennett and 251 other new members were recognized for helping to solve the world’s most urgent challenges, creating meaning through art and contributing to the common good from every field, discipline and profession.
Donald Schaffner, Distinguished Professor and extension specialist in the Department of Food Science, was awarded the 2021 Macy Food Science & Technology Award from the Minnesota Section of International Food Technologists.
Daniel Hoffman, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, was inducted as a member of the Independent Expert Group for the Global Nutrition Report, a major body of work that attempts to elevate global nutrition issues to the forefront of industry, academia, and governments.
Ilya Raskin, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Biology, was awarded funding in the amount of $24,834 from the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research for the project, “Conservation of Indonesian endangered plant resources for human health: Enhancing scientific capacity and strengthening science-based policymaking in Indonesia.”
Peter Strom, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is the principal investigator of the project, “Community Noise Training to County Environmental Health Agents.” Eric Zwerling, director of noise pollution training programs, and Ronald Lauck, program assistant, Rutgers Air and Noise Pollution Training Program, are co-principal investigators of the project, funded at $43,152 by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection through June 2021.
Steven Handel, Distinguished Professor, and Rachael Winfree, professor, Department of Ecology, and Evolution, were elected 2021 Fellows of the Ecological Society of America for their contributions to the science of ecology.
Douglas Zemeckis, marine agent, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Ocean, Monmouth, and Atlantic counties, is the technical advisor on the project, “Testing the Efficacy of a Hybrid Floating Bag and Bottom Planting Method to Grow Oysters,” funded at $11,912 by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education – Farmer Grant. The principal investigator is Matt Gregg, Forty North Oyster Farms/Barnegat Oyster Collective.
Wolfram Hoefer, associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture, was recognized with the 2021 Excellence in Design Studio Teaching by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, the premier international organization for educators in landscape architecture.
Dana Price, associate research professor in the Department of Entomology and member of the Center for Vector Biology, is principal investigator, and Mehdi Javanmard, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is a co-principal investigator of a $353,000 NIH-NIAID grant for the project, “Non-invasive approaches to mosquito-borne pathogen surveillance using excreta.”
RCE Water Resources Program was awarded a grant of $25,000 for the continuation of the Sea Grant Extension Program by the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium for the period February 1, 2021–January 31, 2022.
Peter Strom, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is the principal investigator of the project, “Visible Emissions and other Air Pollution Training for County Environmental Health Agents.” Stephen Szulecki, director of the air pollution training programs, and Ronald Lauck, program assistant, Rutgers Air and Noise Pollution Training Program, are co-principal investigators of the project, funded at $47,236 by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection through June 2021.
Douglas Zemeckis, marine agent, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Ocean, Monmouth, and Atlantic counties, is co-principal investigator of the project, “Continued Testing Into How Cutting Bar Modifications Can Reduce Bycatch and Increase Catch Efficiency in the Atlantic Sea Scallop Dredge Fishery.” The project, funded at $719,842, is supported by NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Program for 2021-2022.
Dana Price, associate research professor in the Department of Entomology and member of the Center for Vector Biology, is principal investigator of a USDA-NIFA grant of $500,000 for the project, “Functional genomics to mitigate the threat of the invasive Asian longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis, in the United States.”
Serpil Guran, director of the Rutgers EcoComplex, is principal investigator and Gal Hochman, professor in the Department of Agriculture, Food, and Resource Economics, is co-principal investigator of the project, “From biogas to biomethane: From waste stream through technologies to incorporate added value.” The project is funded at $25,850 by the Renewable Natural Gas Coalition.
Karl Matthews, professor and Chair of the Department of Food Science, has been named associate editor for Agro-Food Safety for the journal, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
Rutgers University Center for Remote Sensing & Spatial Analysis, Stevens Institute of Technology, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve have been awarded $775,000 to develop a watershed restoration plan for southern Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor. This award is part of $10 million in grants from New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to support restoration, enhancement, and protection strategies that address non-point source pollution within the Barnegat Bay Watershed.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of RCE Water Resources Program, was awarded $167,667 from the William Penn Foundation under the Delaware River Watershed Initiative—Phase 2 to continue green infrastructure studies in the Kirkwood-Cohansey Cluster for Year 4, February 1, 2021 – January 31, 2022.
Rutgers University Center for Remote Sensing & Spatial Analysis, Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, and other environmental non-profits have been awarded a $150,000 grant by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to develop a Coastal Ecological Restoration and Adaptation Plan for New Jersey’s coastal marshes, estuaries, and back-bays.
James Murphy, extension specialist in the Department of Plant Biology and director of the Center for Turfgrass Science, was appointed by the Rutgers University Board of Governors to the Ralph Geiger Chair in Turfgrass Science.
Serpil Guran, director of the Rutgers EcoComplex, is principal investigator and Paul Gottlieb, professor in the Department Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, is co-principal investigator of the project, “Economic Analysis of the Use of Anaerobic Digestion for Processing Food Waste in Bergen County.” The project is funded at $22,500 by the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation.
Max Häggblom, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, was honored with a 2021 Federation of European Microbiological Societies Special Merit Award for his extraordinary support of students and early-career researchers in addition to his ongoing efforts in growing the impact of the journal, FEMS Microbiology Ecology.
James Murphy, specialist in the Department of Plant Biology and director of the Center for Turfgrass Science, is the principal investigator on the project, “Bentgrass cultivar and autumn-applied fungicide timing effects on spring suppression of dollar spot.” Co-principal investigators are Bruce Clarke, specialist, and Ning Zhang, professor, both in the Department of Plant Biology; Pingyuan Zhang and Glen Groben. The project is funded by the U.S. Golf Association at $60,000 for 2021 and 2022.
Bingru Huang, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Biology, was invited by the publisher, Maximum Academic Press, to create a new journal called Grass Research and serve as its editor-in-chief. The inaugural issue was published in January-February 2021.
Serpil Guran, director of the Rutgers EcoComplex, is the principal investigator of the project, “Municipal Solid Waste Quantification and Characterization of Burlington, Mercer, and Union Counties.” The project, funded at $350,545, will provide up-to-date, real-time data on the underprivileged and affluent communities’ waste generation information, which will be utilized by the state for informed decision making. The project starts in March 2021 and is supported by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Donna Fennell, professor and chair in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is a member of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors and has been named to the Environmental Engineering Program Leads Committee.
Anthony Broccoli, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences, has been named a member of the Rutgers Working Group on Governance and Finance of the Climate Task Force.
Karl Matthews, professor and chair of the Department of Food Science, was awarded $6,600 from TeraGanix, Inc. to support research conducted by his team.
Serpil Guran, director of the Rutgers EcoComplex, is the principal investigator of the project, “Providing Technical Assistance to New Jersey Wineries: Achieving Pollution Prevention through Energy Efficiency and Discharge Reduction from Winery Operations.” This project, valued at $596,623, is supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Alan Robock, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is the Chair-elect of the College of Fellows of the American Geophysical Union for the period 2021-2022, and will serve as Chair for 2023-2024.
The RCE Water Resources Program was awarded a grant from the Dodge Foundation for $45,000 to provide technical support to New Jersey communities to adopt green infrastructure strategies and implement projects designed to address stormwater pollution, improve water quality, and reduce flooding. The funding is for the period January 1, 2021–December 31, 2021.
2020
Enrique Curchitser, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was elected chair of the Governing Council of the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES).
Stacy Bonos, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and associate director of the Center for Turfgrass Science, was elected fellow of the American Society of Agronomy, the highest recognition bestowed by the society.
Hemantkumar Gohil, agent, RCE of Gloucester County, was presented with an Achievement Award from the National Association of County Agricultural Agents.
Michael Haberland, agent and Department Head, RCE of Camden County, was presented with a Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of County Agricultural Agents.
Anthony Broccoli, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences, has been named a member of the Executive Committee of the School of Graduate Studies, Rutgers University.
John Wiedenmann, assistant professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, has been recognized with the CINAR Fellowship in Quantitative Fisheries and Ecosystem Science. Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region (CINAR) is a NOAA-supported regional institute that focuses on the Northeast U.S. Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem.
Ramu Govindasamy, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, is principal investigator in a two-year project, “Local Food, Direct Marketing, and Agritourism Activities as Value‐Added Opportunities for Small Farmers in the Mid‐ Atlantic United States,” funded at $98,488 by the Agricultural Marketing Service of the USDA, through the Federal State Marketing Improvement Program. Co-investigators include Brian Schilling, Richard VanVranken, Isaac Vellangany, Steven Komar, Joe Atchison, Peter Nitzsche, Hemant Gohil, and consultant Kathleen Kelley.
Harini Sampath, assistant professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and director of lipidomics at New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health, is the principal investigator of a $231,000 American Heart Association Career Development Grant for the project, “Regulation of lipid metabolism by intestinal desaturases.” The grant runs from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023.
Mark Robson, Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Plant Biology, has been recognized as Senior Policy Fellow in Global Health Policy and Practice in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. This honor recognizes distinguished, nationally prominent professionals in the areas of public policy, planning and health, and health administration. The award highlights Mark’s work in Thailand, the Philippines, Burma, El Salvador, Laos, and Liberia, particularly his “pioneering efforts at studying the environmental exposures to pesticides and related agriculture chemicals and their effects on farmers, their children, and other rural populations embodies the Bloustein School’s commitment to creating a healthier and more sustainable world.”
Ilya Raskin, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, was awarded a five-year continuation grant from the National Institutes of Health – FOGARTY INTERNATIONAL CENTER for “Research Training Center for Botanicals and Chronic Diseases in Tajikistan and Indonesia.” The grant, totaling $1,284,393, will create a new Center for Botanicals and Chronic Diseases in collaboration with City University of New York, Research Foundation, Tajik Research Institute of Preventive Medicine, Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and Universitas Nasional Jakarta, Indonesia. This will enable in-country research training of scientists in Tajikistan and Indonesia on botanicals for prevention and treatment of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, rheumatoid and osteoarthritis and digestive and neurological disorders, thus contributing to improved public health and medical research in both countries.
Alan Robock, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was the recipient of a SilverLining’s Safe Climate Research Initiative gift of $400,000 to study solar climate intervention.
Andrea Gallavotti, associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology and the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, is principal investigator on a $1.13 million grant from NSF IOS Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, Plant Fungal and Microbial Developmental Mechanisms for the project, “Collaborative research: Mechanisms and manipulation of maize meristem size.” This four-year collaborative grant with Robert J. Schmitz, University of Georgia –Athens, runs from September 1, 2020 to August 31, 2024.
Rachel Winfree, professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, is the principal investigator of the project, “How Important is Biodiversity to Ecosystem Function in Mutualist Networks,” funded at $199,998 by the National Science Foundation.
James Simon, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Biology, and Andy Wyenandt, extension specialist in vegetable pathology in the Department of Plant Pathology, are principal investigators along with Itay Gonda and Nativ Dudui, ARO-Israel, on the project, “Next-generation basil: mapping chilling-tolerance in sweet basil using next generation sequencing.” This one-year exploratory project is funded at $103,000 by US-Israel Binational Agricultural Research & Development Fund.
Oscar Schofield, Distinguished Professor and chair in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University’s Center of Ocean Observing Leadership (RU COOL), was awarded a National Science Foundation grant of $1,134,426 for the project, “LTER Palmer, Antarctica (PAL): Land-Shelf-Ocean Connectivity, Ecosystem Resilience and Transformation in a Sea-Ice Influenced Pelagic Ecosystem.”
Ilya Raskin, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, is co-investigator in a five-year project awarded a grant of $765,185 for postdoctoral training from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center For Complementary and Integrative Health. The project, “Botanical Approaches to Combat Metabolic Syndrome,” is the third cycle renewal of a successful collaboration with Phillip Brantley, principal investigator, and the Pennington Botanical Research Center in Baton Rouge, LA.
Julie Lockwood, professor and chair in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, was honored with the School of Graduate Studies Dean’s Advisory Council Award for the Mentoring of Graduate Students in the Biological, Biomedical and Health Sciences category. The Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award recognizes graduate faculty who have made significant contributions to graduate education at Rutgers University.
Ilya Raskin, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, was awarded $139,000 for collaborative research with M. Cohen-Zinder at ARO, Newe Yaar Reserarch Institute in Israel, on the project, “Benefits of Moringa oleifera, an antioxidant rich feed, on improving ruminants production efficiency and product quality.” The joint, three-year research project is supported by the US-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund.
Changlu Wang, extension specialist in the Department of Entomology, received the 2020 Readers’ Choice award from the Journal of Economic Entomology, for his paper, “Developing Aesthetic Injury Level for German Cockroach IPM,” funded by the Northeastern IPM Center through the Partnership Grants Program.
Department of Plant Biology faculty Jim Simon, distinguished professor, and Qingl-Li Wu, associate research professor, are the lead principal investigators at Rutgers for the bioanalytical metabolomics core in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for a new, five-year project, “Influence of Dietary Botanical Supplements on Biological and Behavioral Resilience,” funded at $903,122 by NIH/NCCIH 1U19. The research proposed will provide a unique and detailed dissection of the role of dietary polyphenolic botanical supplements in the maintenance and promotion of biological and behavioral resilience in both preclinical animal models and translational human clinical studies of stress-induced psychological impairment.
Edward Tekwa, postdoc, and Malin Pinsky, associate professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, along with colleagues Eli Fenichel (Yale) and Simon Levin (Princeton) won the outstanding paper award for 2019 from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) for “Path-dependent institutions drive alternative stable states in conservation.”
Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology and director of the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health and collaborators Katherine Amato (Northwestern University), Meghan Azad (University of Manitoba) and Melissa Melby (University of Delaware), were awarded Manulife CIFAR Population Health & Well-being Grant Program funding of $39,526 for the interdisciplinary project, “The influence of COVID-19 behavioral responses on early life microbial exposures.”
David Krol, medical director, New Jersey Healthy Kids Initiative at the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health, has been selected to serve on the Healthy Families Action Team of Healthy NJ 2030, the state’s 2030 overall health improvement plan. Krol’s role includes developing topic area recommendations for the Healthy NJ 2030 State Health Improvement Plan and State Health Assessment.
Judith Storch, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, was inducted into the Class of 2020 Fellows by American Society for Nutrition (ASN), the highest honor ASN bestows, recognizing individuals for significant discoveries and distinguished careers in the field of nutrition.
Alan Robock, distinguished professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was awarded an NSF grant of $714,708, for the project, “Stratospheric Aerosol Climate Intervention Designed to Minimize Negative Impacts,” for the period July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2023.
Chitra Ponnusamy, Undergraduate Program Director in the Department of Food Science, was recognized as a 2020 Career Knight of Distinction Honoree. She was named the Careers Communities and Transitions Unit Campus Partner of the Year by Rutgers Career Exploration and Success, which is committed to assisting students with making connections between their academic experience and career paths.
Bingru Huang, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Biology, William Errickson, agricultural agent of Monmouth County, and Ning Zhang, professor in the Department of Plant Biology, are principal investigators on the project, “Reducing Water and Fertilizer Inputs by Incorporating Native Beneficial Bacteria in Sustainable Turfgrass Sod Production,” funded at $149,910 by the Northeast Regional SARE program.
Edward Durner, associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology, is principal investigator of a three-year award totaling $137,819 from the Northeast Regional SARE program for the project, “Empowering Northeastern Strawberry Growers with Flower Mapping.”
Matthew Elmore, assistant extension specialist in weed science, and Phillip Vines, assistant professor of turfgrass breeding, both in the Department of Plant Biology, were awarded a grant of $89,842 for the project, “Controlling problematic perennial grassy weeds in low input fine fescue naturalized areas,” by the United States Golf Association Turfgrass Environmental Research Program. The research project, which will investigate new methods to control weeds and improve playability of naturalized areas on golf courses, is funded from 2020-2022.
Jeremy Lessing, graduate fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, is one of six Rutgers community members selected for the Clinical, Translational, and Basic Science Research Grants Program by the Governor’s Council for Medical Research and Treatment of Autism of the New Jersey Autism Center of Excellence. The combined award total of $2.4 million will support the efforts of these Rutgers researchers as they work to advance the understanding, treatment, and management of autism in diverse subject areas, ranging from analysis on a molecular level to the examination of complex social behaviors and services.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in water resources in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of the New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute, received an award in the amount of $95,000 for the period July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 from Hamilton Township, New Jersey for “Hamilton Township Stormwater Management Program: 2020 Partnership Agreement.”
Gary Altman and Nrupali Patel, teaching instructors in the Department of Plant Biology, are co-PIs on the project, “Horticultural Therapist Vocational Education in Green Industry Skills Training for Individuals with Developmental Disorders,” which was awarded $150,000 by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants program for the period May 2020-August 2023.
George Carman, Board of Governors Professor and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Food Science and director, Rutgers Center for Lipid Research at the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, & Health, was awarded $3,199,424 by the National Institutes of Health for the project, “Regulation and Role of Phosphatidate Phosphatase in Lipid Metabolism.”
Robert M. Goodman, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, and Dean of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Rutgers through June 30, 2020, was appointed a University Professor by the Rutgers Board of Governors in June.
Scott Glenn, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, was named Board of Governors Professor of Marine and Coastal Sciences by the Rutgers Board of Governors in June.
Joseph Heckman, extension specialist in soil fertility in the Department of Plant Biology, was selected to receive a 2019 Agricultural & Environmental Letters (A&EL) “Editor’s Citation of Excellence” for outstanding service as a reviewer. The award is given on behalf of the A&EL Editorial Board of the American Society Agronomy, Crop Science Society America, and Soil Science Society of America.
Donna Fennell (PI), professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences; Gerben Zylstra and Keith Cooper (co-PIs), Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology; and Christopher Marquis (collaborator) University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, were awarded a Rutgers Global International Collaborative Research Grant of $8,000 for the project, “Identifying a Dioxin Dehalogenase in Passaic River Microbial Enrichments.”
Anthony Broccoli, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences, received the Dr. Barbara Munson Goff Teacher of the Year Award from the Rutgers University Chapter of Alpha Zeta, June 2020.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in water resources in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of the New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute, was awarded $33,000 by the New Jersey Department of Health for “Year 3 Fostering the Growth of Private Well Researchers at New Jersey’s Universities – 2020-2021, for the period June 1, 2020, to October 31, 2021.
Rong Di, associate research professor in the Department of Plant Biology, is the principal investigator in the project, “Genetic engineering barley for Fusarium head blight resistance.” The project is supported by the US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative, USDA, at $53,082 for the period August 1, 2020, to July 31, 2021.
Craig Phelps, associate teaching professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was selected for the 2019-2020 Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching. This honor is reserved for non-tenure-track, full-time faculty members in the arts and humanities, sciences, and social sciences who have demonstrated outstanding teaching skills in classroom instruction, clinical instruction, curriculum development, or mentoring.
RCE Water Resources Program was awarded $163,000 by the William Penn Foundation for the Delaware River Watershed Initiative—Phase 2, to complete green infrastructure studies in the Kirkwood-Cohansey Cluster and to conduct training for municipal officials. This funding is for the period February 16, 2020, to February 15, 2021.
Mark Robson, Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor and professor in the Department of Plant Biology, is the recipient of the Clement A. Price Human Dignity Award, sponsored by The Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes at Rutgers. The award “recognizes outstanding individuals, programs or community organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary achievement and commitment to promoting and practicing diversity and inclusion at Rutgers University and/or in partnership with the broader community.”
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in water resources in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of the New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute, received a $114,675 award for the project, “Green Infrastructure Municipal Outreach and Technical Assistance Program – Year 7,” from the Passaic Valley Sewerage Authority for the period, March 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021.
Anthony Broccoli, chair and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences has been appointed a member of the Working Group on Climate Preparedness, a part of the President’s Task Force on Carbon Neutrality and Climate Resilience at Rutgers University.
RCE Water Resources Program was awarded $25,000 by the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium for the continuation of the Sea Grant Extension Program, for the period February 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021.
Julie Lockwood, chair and professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, was elected a 2020 fellow of the Ecological Society of America for contributions to “ecological research and discovery, communication, education and pedagogy, and management and policy.”
Albrecht Koppenhöfer, extension specialist in the Department of Entomology, is the principal investigator of the project, “Long-term suppression of turfgrass insect pests with native persistent entomopathogenic nematodes.” The project is funded at $49,865 by the O.J. Noer Foundation through the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and US Golf Association.
Michelle Brill, Family and Community Health Sciences (FCHS) Educator, Mercer County, was awarded a grant of $2,150 from the American Heart Association for FCHS SNAP-Ed Heart Smart Program.
Diana Roopchand, assistant professor in the Department of Food Science, is the principal investigator of a four-year grant of $250,000 for the project, “Proanthocyanidin metabolites produced by commensal gut microbes may promote metabolic resilience,” funded by the NIH/National Center for Complimentary and Integrative Health (NCCIH).
Troy Roepke, associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, Diana Roopchand, assistant professor in the Department of Food Science, and Sara Campbell, associate professor, Department of Kinesiology and Health in the School of Arts and Sciences, are co-principal investigators in the project, “Interactions of dietary fatty acids, sex steroids, and gut microbiota may predict chronic disease in menopausal females – a pilot project for development of a Center for Sex Differences across the Lifespan,” funded at $219,650 by the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health from October 2019 to September 2021.
Donald Schaffner, distinguished professor and extension specialist in the Department of Food Science, was awarded a $300,000 USDA NIFA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative grant for the project, “A Risk-Based Decision Support Tool (DST) to Improve Adoption of Produce Safety Practices by Northeast Growers.”
Alan Robock, distinguished professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was recognized with the Chancellor’s Award for Global Impacts, which honors “individual faculty whose research or teaching or service has catalyzed global partnerships or generated international impacts and exceptional public engagement.” Robock is among the recipients of the 2019-2020 Chancellor’s and Provost’s Awards for Faculty Excellence, which represent faculty members at all stages of their careers whose outstanding work has been recognized by their peers.
Christopher Obropta, extension specialist in water resources in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of the New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute, received a 1-year award totaling $125,000 from the US Geological Survey for “New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute FY2020 104(b) Program,” for the period March 2, 2020, to February 28, 2021.
Daniel Van Abs, associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology, was awarded the planning profession’s highest honor by being named to the prestigious American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) College of Fellows for his outstanding achievements in environmental planning.
Beverly Tepper, professor in the Department of Food Science and director of the Center for Sensory Sciences & Innovation, was appointed a member of the Institute of Food Technologists, Sensory and Consumer Science Division Achievement Award Jury, 2020-2021.
Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability, led by Richard Alomar, associate director of the Office of Urban Extension and Engagement and associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture, and Frank Gallagher, environmental planning program director and Associate Professor of Professional Practice in the Department of Landscape Architecture, received a 2020 Professional Honor Award from the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects during the chapter’s annual meeting in Atlantic City in February.
James Murphy, extension specialist in turfgrass management in the Department of Plant Biology, and Hui (Eric) Chen, former doctoral student now with STRI (formerly Sports Turf Research Institute), U.K., were awarded a grant of $161,163 from the United States Golf Association to support the project, “Topdressing sand size effects on mat layer development during treatment years 5–7.”
Peggy Policastro, director of the Culinary Health Program at New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health and nutritionist at Rutgers Dining Services, was named among the 2020 Top Women in Metro New York Foodservice and Hospitality by Total Food Service for her innovation within a major discipline of the foodservice industry.
James Murphy, extension specialist in turfgrass management, Bruce Clarke, extension specialist in turfgrass pathology and director of the Rutgers Center for Turfgrass Science, and Pingyuan Zhang, graduate assistant, Department of Plant Biology, are principal investigators on a two-year award totaling $60,000 for “Optimizing Fungicide Programming for Dollar Spot Control in Bentgrass Fairways.” The project is supported by the Superintendents Association of America, the Golf Course Superintendents Association of New Jersey Foundation, and New Jersey Turfgrass Foundation.
RCE Water Resources Program was awarded a $35,000 grant from the Dodge Foundation to provide technical support to New Jersey communities to adopt green infrastructure strategies and implement projects designed to address stormwater pollution, improve water quality, and reduce flooding, for the period January 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020.
2019
Nicholas Bello, associate professor in the Department of Animal Science, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $156,000 for the project, “Validation methods for raspberry ketone (4-(4 hydroxyphenl)-2-butanone” from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.
Gediminas Mainelis, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was elected Vice Chair of the Bioaerosols Working Group of the American Association for Aerosol Research for its 2020 annual conference.
Pamela McElwee, associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology, is the principal investigator of the project, “Understanding the Use of Ecosystem Services Concepts in Environmental Policy,” funded at $390,183 by the National Science Foundation.
Thomas Leustek, associate dean for academic administration and assessment and a professor in the Department of Plant Biology, was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition for ‘significant achievements across disciplines, from research and teaching to technology and administration.’
Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology and interim chair of the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health, is the principal investigator for the project, “Humans & the Microbiome,” funded at $22,700 by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
Mary Whelan, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is the principal investigator of the project, “New estimates of terrestrial C and water cycle fluxes by combining the carbonyl sulfide stomatal conductance tracer framework and high resolution ECOSTRESS surface data,” funded at $359,936 by the NASA ECOSTRESS Science Applications Team. The three-year project runs from January 2020 to December 2022. Additional co-PIs include Mingjie Shi at the UCLA Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering and Le “Elva” Kuai at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
David Krol, medical director of the Rutgers New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health and the New Jersey Healthy Kids Initiative, was honored with the Oral Health Service Award by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The award is presented by the AAP Section on Oral Health to individuals who have made significant contributions to the field through their activities within the American Academy of Pediatrics.
RCE Water Resources Program was awarded $264,000 by The New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council to conduct regional stormwater management planning in the 24 municipalities in the Highlands portion of WMA8 – North and South Branch Raritan River Watershed. The 12-month project runs from 10/08/2019 to 10/07/2020.
Sara Campbell, associate professor, Department of Kinesiology and Health in the School of Arts and Sciences and member of the Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health, is the lead principal investigator (PI) of a three-year grant for the project, “Linking brown fat to the microbiome to enhance warfighter health,” which is supported by the Department of Defense – Office of Navy Research. Rutgers co-PIs on the project are Lee Kerkhof, professor, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Max Haggblom, distinguished professor and chair, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, and Stephen Vatner, professor, Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine.
Grace Saba, assistant professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences (DMCS), is the lead principal investigator (PI), and John Wilkin, professor DMCS, is co-principal investigator of the project, “Optimizing Ocean Acidification Observations for Model Parameterization in the Coupled Slope Water System of the U.S. Northeast Large Marine Ecosystem,” funded at $1,499,895 by the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program/Integrated Ocean Observing System. Additional co-PIs include Charles Flagg and Janet Nye, Stony Brook University; Joe Salisbury and Doug Vandemark, University of New Hampshire; Neal Pettigrew, University of Maine; Gerhard Kuska, Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System; and John R. Morrison, Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems. The three-year project runs from September 2019 to August 2022.
Josh Kohut, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, was named a Fellow of the Marine Technology Society, an international body that was incorporated in 1963 to promote awareness, understanding, and the advancement and application of marine technology. Kohut, who has been at the forefront of the deployment and operation of a range of technologies at sea that support science, health, human safety, and sustainable fishery management, was recognized for fundamental contributions in the development of novel technologies that are allowing us to sample marine systems.
Robert Chant, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences (DMCS), is the lead principal investigator (PI) of the project, “Buoyant river outflows as a control on microplastic fate and transport, sources, transformations, dispersion, and sinks,” supported by NOAA Marine Debris Program. The two-year grant is worth $320,000. Rutgers co-PIs on the project are Grace Saba, assistant professor, DMCS), Nicole Fahrenfeld (Civil & Environmental Engineering), and Georgia Arbuckle-Keil (Chemistry, Camden).
Mukund Karwe, distinguished professor in the Department of Food Science and dean of international programs, received the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association for Engineering and Food (IAEF) during the 13th International Congress on Engineering and Food held in Melbourne, Australia, from September 23-26. The IAEF Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes long-serving experts for their “lifelong contribution and international impact on the progress of food engineering.”
Joseph Clark, research farm supervisor at Hort Farm 2 in the Department of Plant Biology, has been named a recipient of an Honorary American Future Farmers of America (FFA) Degree, for his contribution to “growing leaders, building communities and strengthening agriculture.” National FFA Organization recognizes outstanding individuals who have provided exceptional support of school-based agricultural education and FFA.
Yair Rosenthal, distinguished professor with joint appointments in the departments of Marine and Coastal Sciences and Earth and Planetary Sciences, has been named a 2019 Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. He joins 61 other colleagues who will be recognized this year for their “scientific eminence in the Earth and space sciences.”
Robert Chant, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, received the Donald W. Pritchard Award for Physical Oceanography Paper, “Impact of channel deepening on tidal and gravitational circulation in a highly engineered estuarine basin,” from the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF). The Pritchard Award recognizes the authors of the best physical oceanography paper published in Estuaries and Coasts within the two-year interval between CERF conferences. Co-authors are Christopher K. Sommerfield, University of Delaware, and Stefan A. Talke, Portland State University.
Cymie Payne, associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology and the School of Law – Camden, has been elected a fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers (ACOEL), a professional association of distinguished lawyers who practice in the field of environmental law. Recognized by their peers as preeminent in their field, ACOEL members are dedicated to maintaining and improving the ethical practice of environmental law; the administration of justice; and the development of environmental law at both the state and federal level.
Andrea Gallavotti, associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology and the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, is principal investigator a four-year NSF grant of $ 2,432,562, for the project, “TRTech-pgr: Mapping and functional characterization of cis-regulatory module variation in plants.” The project, which runs from July 2019 through June 2023, involves collaborators from NYU and American University.
Alan Robock, distinguished professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was appointed the representative to the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics Commission on Climatic and Environmental Change of the International Association of Volcanism and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior for 2019-2023.
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.
Alan Robock, distinguished professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was appointed to the Executive Committee of the American Geophysical Union College of Fellows.
Christopher Obropta, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, extension specialist in water resources, and director of the New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute, received a 1-year award totaling $92,335 from the US Geological Survey for “New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute FY2019 104(b) Program,” for the period June 18, 2019, to June 17, 2020.
Carey Williams, associate extension specialist in the Department of Animal Sciences and associate director of extension at the Rutgers Equine Science Center, was awarded The American Feed Industry Association’s Award for Equine Nutrition Research.
Bruce Crawford, director of the Rutgers Gardens, received the 2019 Friends of the Frelinghuysen Arboretum award for his service as an “educator, writer, landscape architect and speaker” over a long career during which he’s introduced master gardeners, garden club members, students and the general public to the joy of creating gardens. The Arboretum was founded in 1972 to support and promote the development of the Frelinghuysen Arboretum and other horticultural facilities of the Morris County Park Commission.
Christopher Obropta, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, extension specialist in water resources, and director of the New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute, received an 18-month award totaling $33,000 from the New Jersey Department of Health for “Fostering the Growth of Private Well Researchers at New Jersey’s Universities – 2019-2020.”
Kenneth McKeever, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and associate director of research at the Rutgers Equine Science Center, was named a fellow of the American Physiological Society (APS) in recognition of more than 30 years of work within the field of physiological science. The rank of fellow at the APS is “an elite member status reserved to honor distinguished leaders who have demonstrated excellence in science, have made significant contributions to the physiological sciences and related disciplines and have served the Society.”
Christopher Obropta, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, extension specialist in water resources, and director of the New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute, received an 18-month award totaling $33,000 from the New Jersey Department of Health for “Fostering the Growth of Private Well Researchers at New Jersey’s Universities,” for 2019 – 2020.
Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology and director of the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health, was appointed a fellow in the Humans & the Microbiome program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).
Co-founders of the Rutgers Food Innovation Center, Margaret Brennan-Tonetta, associate vice president for economic development and associate director of NJAES and Lou Cooperhouse, co-founder, president and current CEO of BlueNalu, were named to the inaugural list of New Jersey Food and Beverages Influencers in ROI-NJ, a media company that connects businesses in New Jersey. Located in Bridgeton, NJ, the Rutgers center gets high praise from an industry insider: “The facility is on the cutting edge of innovation in the food industry as times change. They have helped so many small businesses get to a larger level. It was one of the first of its kind around the country.”
Katherine Dawson, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is the pincipal investigator of an award of $22,250 for the project, “Response of coastal river sediment microbial communities to increased seawater exposure.” The project is supported by the Eppley Foundation.
Andrea Gallavotti, associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology and the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, 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 held in St Louis, MO, March 14-17.
Diana Roopchand, assistant professor in the Department of Food Science, is the principal investigator in the project, “Proanthocyanidin metabolites produced by commensal gut microbes may promote metabolic resilience,” which was awarded a four-year, $250,000 grant from the NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.
Beverly Tepper, professor in the Department of Food Science and director of the Center for Sensory Sciences & Innovation, was appointed to the Editorial Board of Plus One Online Journal.
Donald Schaffner, distinguished professor and extension specialist in the Department of Food Science, was awarded a grant by the Center for Produce Safety for the project, ‘A systematic review of Listeria growth and survival on fruit and vegetable surfaces.” Total project funding is $182,473.
RCE Water Resources Program received an Environmental Enhancement Merit Award for “Reading Rain Gardens: A Community Environmental Initiate for Woodbridge Libraries” from the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects at its annual meeting in Atlantic City, NJ, on February 11.
RCE Water Resources Program received funding in the amount of $25,000 from the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium for the period February 1, 2019 to January 31, 2020 for the continuation of the Sea Grant Extension Program.
Anthony Broccoli, chair and professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, has been appointed to the Awards Oversight Committee and Planning Commission of the American Meteorological Society.
Alan Robock, distinguished professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, has been appointed Associate Editor of Reviews of Geophysics from January 2019 to December 2022.
RCE Water Resources Program received a $35,000 grant from the Dodge Foundation to provide technical support to New Jersey communities to adopt green infrastructure strategies and implement projects designed to address stormwater pollution, improve water quality, and reduce flooding. The funding is for the period January 1–December 31, 2019.
Oscar Schofield, chair and distinguished professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is the 2019 recipient of the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award from the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography for “transforming our understanding of the physical and chemical processes that govern marine phytoplankton physiology and ecology through the application of novel ocean observing tools, and for his skillful and enthusiastic leadership of the collaborative science necessary for addressing broad scale oceanographic challenges.”
RCE Water Resources Program received a one-year award totaling $70,000 from the Township of Hamilton for the project, “Stormwater Management Implementation Program-Year 7.” The funding is for the period January 1–December 31, 2019.
RCE Water Resources Program received a grant of $111,432 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation – Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund 2018 to conduct the project,“Naturalizing Detention Basins for Enhanced Habitat and Water Quality in Hamilton Township, New Jersey,” for the period January 1, 2019 – December 31, 2020.
2018
Sue Shapses, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $25,000. The project, “Nutrient Adequacy and Diet Quality in a Randomized Controlled Trial with Normal and Higher Protein Intake,” is supported by the International Life Sciences Institute.
Rachael Winfree, professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, whose trailblazing research on the effects of environmental change on the biodiversity of pollinators and the ecosystem service they provide has been widely recognized, joined a small and distinguished group as a member of the Duke Farms Science Advisory Committee. Winfree’s role will be to help guide Duke Farms to become a natural climate solutions research station and demonstration site as well as engage academic partners in a rigorous experimentation and monitoring enterprise.
Kathleen John-Alder, associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture, was named fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects for “exceptional contributions to the landscape architecture profession and society at large.”
The School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School received pledges totaling $232,200 from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. A $125,000 pledge will benefit the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology in support of work by associate professor Jeff Boyd, on abnormal nucleotide release/metabolism in dehydrated airways. A pledge of $107,200 will benefit the RWJMS department of biochemistry and molecular biology in support of Nancy Woychik’s research.
Mukund Karwe, professor in the Department of Food Science and dean of international programs, was elected a fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology during the 19th World Food Congress held in Mumbai, India, on October 25, 2018.
Peter Strom, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was named a Fellow of the Water Environment Federation, a not-for-profit association that provides technical education and training for thousands of water quality professionals who clean water and return it safely to the environment.
The New Jersey Climate Adaptation Alliance, co-facilitated by Jeanne Herb, executive director of the Environmental Analysis and Communications Group, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, and Marjorie Kaplan, associate director, Rutgers Climate Institute, received the 2018 Coastal and Ocean Champions Award from the Urban Coast Institute and was recognized by a joint resolution of the New Jersey legislature praising its meritorious efforts. New Jersey Governors Thomas Kean and James Florio, honorary co-chairs of the Alliance, accepted the award on behalf of the Alliance.
Paul Falkowski, distinguished professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $5,481,681. The project, “ENIGMA: Evolution of Nanomachines in Geospheres and Microbial Ancestors,” is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Kenneth Able, distinguished professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and director of the Rutgers University Marine Field Station, received the Dwight A. Webster Memorial Award from the Northeastern Division of the American Fisheries Society.
Margaret Brennan-Tonetta, NJAES director of economic growth & development and associate vice president for economic development at Rutgers’ Office of Research and Economic Development, is acting principal investigator for a five-year, $220 million award to a coalition of academic and oceanographic research organizations, including Rutgers University–New Brunswick, to operate and maintain the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). The team also included Scott Glenn and Oscar Schofield, distinguished professors in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and co-founders of Rutgers’ Center for Ocean Observing Leadership, who led the Rutgers data team.
Jim Simon, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Biology, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $2,173,090. The project, “Managing Downy Mildew and Fusarium in Basil with New Resistant Varieties, Improved Genetics, Seed Treatment, and Disease Occurrence Mapping,” is supported by the United States Department of Agriculture.
David Krol, medical director of the Rutgers New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health and the New Jersey Healthy Kids Initiative, received a Special Achievement Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics for outstanding contributions to and advocacy on behalf of children and their families.
Paul Breslin, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, was elevated to Associate Savante status by Extra Virgin Olive Oil Savantes, an international organization that reward individuals for demonstrating their expertise in tasting, discriminating and judging various olive oils.
Department of Plant Biology faculty Rong Di, assistant research professor as principal investigator, and Michael Lawton, associate professor, and Jim Simon, distinguished professor, as co-principal investigators, were awarded a two-year, $300,000 NSF/USDA grant for the project, “CRISPR-editing of sweet basil susceptibility genes to improve downy mildew resistance.”
Lena Struwe, professor in the departments of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, and Plant Biology, received the 2018 Charles Edwin Bessey Teaching Award from the Botanical Society of America (BSA). The highest honor for Teaching and Educational Outreach given by the BSA, the Bessey Award recognizes, “outstanding contributions made to botanical instruction and celebrates individuals whose work has improved the quality of botanical education at a regional, national, or international level.”
Rong Di, assistant research professor in the Department of Plant Biology, received a one-year, $48,095 USDA – US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative – grant for the project, “Genetic engineering barley for Fusarium head blight resistance.”
Lena Struwe, professor in the departments of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, and Plant Biology, is the Rutgers PI on a multi-institutional grant of $354,805 for “NSF – Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: The Pteridological Collections Consortium: An integrative approach to pteridophyte diversity over the last 420 million years.” Rutgers is a sub-awardee through the New York Botanical Gardens.
Christopher Obropta, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and extension specialist in water resources, received a one-year award totaling $92,335 from the U.S. Geological Survey for the New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute Program, which he directs at Rutgers.
Jeff Boyd, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, was presented the 2018 Young Investigator of the Year award by the Theobald Smith Society, the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society of Microbiology (ASM).
Jean Marie Hartman, associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture, was recognized with a Public Education Award when the the winners of the Sustainable Raritan River Awards were announced at the 10th Annual Sustainable Raritan Conference and Awards Ceremony on June 8. The Sustainable Raritan Awards, established in 2010, promote innovation and energize local efforts to restore and protect the rivers, streams and habitat of the Raritan River and Bay. The awards highlight extraordinary accomplishments and inspire other groups and individuals across the watershed to achieve comparable levels of excellence.
Jeff Boyd, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, was awarded a five-year Early CAREER grant of $1,033,667 from the National Science Foundation for the project, “Iron-sulfur cluster assembly in Bacillus subtilis.”
Max Häggblom, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, has been appointed a 2018 Guest Distinguished Professor at the Guangdong Institute of Eco-environmental Science & Technology, China, continuing his collaboration on projects on the biogeochemical cycling of metals in soils and environmental pollution control.
Yair Rosenthal, distinguished professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $513,328. The project, “Global and Regional Perspectives of Pleistocene Paleoceanography in the Western Pacific Warm Pool Based on New Sites from IODP Expedition 363,” is supported by the National Science Foundation.
Jeff Boyd, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, received a five-year award of $1,881,000 from the National Institute Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the project, “Mechanisms of cellular respiration-dependent cell lysis and its impact on biofilm formation and disassembly in Staphylococcus aureus.”
Kathleen John-Alder, associate professor and graduate program director in the Department of Landscape Architecture, has been elevated to Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) for “exceptional contributions to the landscape architecture profession and society at large.” Election to the ASLA Council of Fellows is among the highest honors the ASLA bestows on members and is based on their works, leadership and management, knowledge and service.
Christopher Obropta, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and extension specialist in water resources, received a three-year grant for $503,000 from the William Penn Foundation under the Delaware River Watershed Initiative—Phase 2. The purpose of the grant is to complete green infrastructure studies in the Kirkwood-Cohansey Cluster and to conduct training for municipal officials.
Jeff Boyd, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $125,000. The project, “Respiration-dependent cell lysis and biofilm modulation in Staphylococcus aureus,” is supported by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Anthony Broccoli, chair and professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, has been named a Publications Commissioner by the American Meteorological Society Council, the principal governing body of the society, effective January 2019.
Peter Strom, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was presented the New Jersey Water Environment Association (NJWEA) Wastewater Hall of Fame Award at the NJWEA Conference in May. The award recognizes members of the association who have demonstrated dedication and competitive achievement in the wastewater field.
Gary Taghon, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $38,962. The project, “Benthic Infaunal Communities and Sediment Properties in Pile Fields within the Hudson River Estuarine Sanctuary,” is supported by the Hudson River Foundation.
David Bushek, associate professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and director of the Haskin Shellfish Research laboratory, NJAES, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $300,000. The project, “Assembling the Best Available Science to Inform the Interstate Transport of Shellfish Seed,” is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Nathan Yee, professor in the Department of Environmental Geomicrobiology, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $50,000. The project, “RAPID: Transformation of Elemental Mercury Dispersed by Flooding During Hurricane Harvey,” is supported by the National Science Foundation.
Mark Miller, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $439,059. The project, “Connecting the Radiative Influences of Aerosol Upon the Mass Flux Profiles of Shallow Cumuli Across the Central Atlantic Ocean Basin and its Boundaries,” is supported by the United States Department of Energy.
Debashish Bhattacharya, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, was appointed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to serve on the committee to discuss and report on strategic ‘Interventions to Increase the Resilience of Coral Reefs.’
Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program has partnered with the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission (PVSC) to implement an outreach and technical assistance program providing guidance and direction to the 48 municipalities in the PVSC service area regarding the benefits and opportunities of implementing green infrastructure practices. The “Clean Waterways, Healthy Neighborhoods” endeavor earned PVSC a 2018 “Forward Thinking” Wave Award from the Association of Environmental Authorities (AEA).
Daniel Van Abs, associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology, and his research were referenced in the final report of the Joint Legislative Task Force on Drinking Water Infrastructure, which was approved on January 8, 2018. The task force was charged with studying and making recommendations concerning issues related to drinking water infrastructure in New Jersey, and identifying both short-term and long-term solutions to address the quality and condition of drinking water infrastructure in the State. The report includes a number of proposals for legislative and regulatory action.
Debashish Bhattacharya, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, is the principal investigator of a three-year, $611,311 grant from the National Science Foundation. The project, “Elucidating Adaptive Potential through Coral Holobiont Functional Integration,” is designed to build a comprehensive model for the coral stress response using genomic and physiological data, and runs from June 2018 to May 2021.
Naa Oyo A. Kwate, associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $150,000. The project, “Race and the Transformation of the Food Environment: Fast Food, African Americans, and the Color Line, 1955-1995,” is supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Peter Kahn, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, was recognized with the 2018 Clement A. Price Human Dignity Award “for distinguished leadership for over 40 years advancing social responsibility and forging intercultural collaborations including the global Bosnian Student Project.” Kahn, a member of the faculty since 1976, served as the local coordinator for the Bosnian Student Project, a volunteer relief effort that placed students whose education had been disrupted by the wars in the former Yugoslavia in high schools and colleges throughout the U.S.
Several faculty and staff were honored at the 25th Annual Celebration of Excellence for the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.
TEACHING EXCELLENCE AWARD
Elisabeth (Liz) Sikes – Department of Marine and Coastal Science
RESEARCH EXCELLENCE AWARD
Julie Lockwood – Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources
OUTREACH EXCELLENCE AWARD
Cara Cuite – Department of Human Ecology
Sara Elnakib – Department of Family and Community Health Sciences
INTERNATIONAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Daniel Hoffman – Department of Nutritional Sciences
STAFF EXCELLENCE AWARD
Richard DeStefano – Marucci Blueberry-Cranberry Research Center
Gail McKenzie – Department of Landscape Architecture
TEAM EXCELLENCE AWARD
Ethnic Produce Production and Marketing Working Group
Ramu Govindasamy, Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics
James E. Simon, Department of Plant Biology
Brian Schilling, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics
Peter Nitzsche, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Morris County
William J. Sciarappa, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Monmouth County
Richard W. VanVranken, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Atlantic County
Albert Ayeni, Department of Plant Biology
Thomas J. Orton, Department of Plant Biology
Stephen J. Komar, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Sussex County
Surendran Arumugam, Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics
Wendy I. Stellatella, Department of Human Ecology
Isaac Vellangany, Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics
Ed Dager, Snyder Research and Extension Farm
Chung Heon Park, Department of Plant Biology
William Reichert, Department of Plant Biology
Robert Pyne, Department of Plant Biology
Daniel Giurleo, Department of Plant Biology
David Byrnes, Department of Plant Biology
Rodolfo Juliani, Department of Plant Biology
Qingli Wu, Department of Plant Biology
Pierre Tannous, Department of Plant Biology
Kathleen M. Kelley, Penn State University
Shouan Zhang, University of Florida
Frank Mangan, University of Massachusetts
Gene McAvoy, University of Florida
Anu Rangarajan, Cornell University
David Robinson, professor in the Department of Geography and New Jersey State Climatologist, NJAES, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $283,452. The project, “Enhanced Historical Monitoring of Snow Cover Across Northern Hemisphere Lands,” is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Chana Kranzler, post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $246,000. The project, “Driving Marine Biogeochemical Cycles Through Phytoplankton Host-virus Interactions,” is supported by the Simons Foundation.
Dan Kluchinski, agricultural agent and chair of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, was honored posthumously with a Distinguished Service to Agriculture Citation by the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture during the New Jersey State Agricultural Convention in Atlantic City. Kluchinski, who passed away on October 16, joined the Rutgers faculty in 1988, serving as county agricultural and resource management agent in Mercer County, achieving the rank of professor in 2004.
Mike Kennish, research professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, served as the lead guest editor of the January special thematic issue of Estuaries and Coasts, considered the leading estuary and coastal journal in the world. The special issue, “The National Estuarine Research Reserve System: An Integrated Network of Research and Monitoring Sites Supporting Coastal Zone Management,” focuses on select research conducted in NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS), a network of 29 estuary sites protecting more than 525,000 acres of estuarine and coastal habitat in the U.S.
Paul Falkowski, distinguished professor in the departments of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Marine and Coastal Sciences and founding director of the Rutgers Energy Institute, was awarded the 2018 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, for his leadership in understanding and communicating the impacts of climate change.
William Hallman, professor and chair of the Department of Human Ecology, was appointed to the Advisory Committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Climate Communications Initiative (CCI), which coordinates efforts across the Academies to successfully address public questions about climate change. The multidisciplinary advisory committee will develop a strategic plan for the CCI and provide guidance in implementing the plan.
2017
Beverly Tepper, professor in the Department of Food Science and director of the Center for Sensory Sciences & Innovation, was appointed chair of the Institute of Food Technologists, Sensory and Consumer Sciences Division Scholarship for 2017-2020. In addition, she chairs the Industrial Liaison Committee of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences from 2017-2019.
Karen Schaich, associate professor in the Department of Food Science, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $454,735. The project, “Revised Understanding of Lipid Oxidation Mechanisms,” is being supported by the United States Department of Agriculture.
Ramu Govindasamy, professor and Chair of the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, was elected to serve as president of the Food Distribution Research Society (FDRS) for the 2017-2018 term. FDRS is the only body of scholars and practitioners in the U.S. dedicated to the study, monitoring and sharing of knowledge about the dramatic changes that are taking place in the global food system.
Don Schaffner, extension specialist in the Department of Food Science, was selected a “Distinguished Lecturer”–a scientifically diverse group of distinguished scientists selected to deliver lectures at ASM branch meetings in the U.S.–by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), for 2017-2019.
Silke Severmann, associate professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, , is the principal investigator of an award totaling $521,801. The project, “Investigation of Paired Uranium and Chromium Isotope Behavior During Authigenic Metal Uptake into Continental Margin Sediments,” is being supported by the National Science Foundation.
Mark Miller, research professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $37,500. The project, “Operation of the Photochemical Assessment Monitoring (PAM) Site,” is being supported by the PA- Department of Environmental Protection.
Enrique Curchitser, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, has been elected vice-chair of the North Pacific Marine Science Organization, the inter-governmental entity also known as Pacific ICES – International Consortium for the Exploration of the Seas. Curchitser was named U.S. Academic Delegate to PICES in 2104.
Beverly Tepper, professor in the Department of Food Science and director of the Center for Sensory Sciences & Innovation, and Jim Simon, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Biology and director of the New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program, are co-PIs on a grant from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, Seeding Solutions Program for the project, “Defining Stressors to Manage Plasticity and Quality in Leafy Greens.” The Rutgers portion of the 2017-2020 grant totals $171,000.
Changlu Wang, associate extension specialist in urban pest management in the Department of Entomology, and researchers in the Urban Entomology Lab he leads, were awarded $360,000 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to investigate patterns of pest infestation and pesticide use in low-income housing in New Jersey.
Nicholas Bello, associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $301,876. The project, “Effects of Raspberry Ketone on Body Weight and Metabolic Outcomes in Obesity,” is being supported by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.
Carol Byrd-Bredbenner, professor, extension specialist and co-director of the graduate program in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $4,000,000. The project, “Advancing and Expanding Homestyles Shaping HOME Environments and Lifestyles to Prevent Childhood Obesity,” is being supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Brooke Maslo, assistant professor and wildlife specialist in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Sciences, and Sarah Gignoux-Wohlfson, postdoctoral associate in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, are co-principal investigators of an award totaling $39,913. The project, “Identifying Genetic Signatures of Selection in Multiple Bat Host Species,” is being supported by the Wildlife Management Institute.
Scott Glenn, distinguished professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and co-director of the Center for Ocean Observing Leadership, has been named a Fellow of the Marine Technology Society. This honor recognizes his career of developing novel technologies that have been used to forecast the Gulf Stream dynamics, developing integrated ocean observatories, improving the ability to sample and forecast hurricane intensity, and his focus on integrating undergraduate education into his research.
Beverly Tepper, professor in the Department of Food Science and director of the Center for Sensory Sciences & Innovation, was elected a 2017 Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists for her “important and sustained contributions to the field of sensory science” and “exemplary leadership in promoting the understanding of sensory science through her various roles as a researcher, educator, and mentor.”
Paul Gottlieb, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $381,154. The project, “Industry Clusters and the Location of Agriculture: Establishing a Theoretical Base for Economic Development Practice,” is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
John Wilkin, professor in the Department of Marine & Coastal Sciences, and Javier Savala-Garay, assistant research professor in the Department of Marine & Coastal Sciences, are co-principal investigators of an award totaling $772,894. The project, “Integrating Altimetry and Coastal Ocean Observing Systems for Coastal Circulation Applications at Multiple Temporal and Spatial Scales,” is being supported by the NASA- Stennis Space Center.
Elisabeth Sikes, associate professor in the Department of Marine & Coastal Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $428,935. The project, “Watermass Structure and Paleoventilation of the Southwest Indian and Southern Ocean in the Holocene and Late Quaternary,” is being supported by the National Science Foundation.
Troy Roepke, assistant professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $423,390. The project, “Disruption of Arcuate Gene Expression and Neuronal Activity by OPFR,” is being supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Services.
Alan Robock, distinguished professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $718,276. The project, “Impacts of Climate Engineering Using Stratospheric Aerosols,” is being supported by the National Science Foundation.
William Hallman, professor and Chair of the Department of Human Ecology, was appointed a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) at the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC is the premier communication policy center in the country; its scholars have addressed the role of communication in politics, science policy, health care, civics and mental health, among many other important areas.
Siobain Duffy, associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, was awarded the Ann Palmenberg Junior Investigator Award by the American Society for Virology.
Beverly Tepper, professor in the Department of Food Science and director of the Center for Sensory Sciences & Innovation, was named session chair for “Fats and Carbs” at the 12th International Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, in Provincetown, RI.
Lena Struwe, professor in the departments of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, and Plant Biology, and Myla Aronson, assistant professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, are co- PIs on a four-year, $1.5 million NSF Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program collaborative research grant, “Digitization TCN: The Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis: Achieving a greater scientific understanding of our urban world.” The lead PI is Cynthia Skema, University of Pennsylvania.
Pamela McElwee, associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology, won the EuroSEAS Book Prize for the best academic book on Southeast Asia published in the social sciences for Forests are Gold: Trees, People and Environmental Rule in Vietnam. The book was also shortlisted as one of the five best 2015-2017 books on Asia in the social sciences category by the International Convention of Asia Scholars.
Joan Bennett, professor in the Department of Plant Biology, received the Tai Fung-Lan Award for International Cooperation from the Mycological Society of China, a scientific society that promotes mycological studies. In addition, she was the chair of a committee tasked with producing the report, “Microbiomes of the Built Environment,” for the National Academy of Sciences.
Bonnie McCay, professor emeritus in the Department of Human Ecology, and Eleanor Bochenek, director of the Fisheries Cooperative Center at Rutgers Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, were selected to serve on the Fisheries Steering Committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The goal of the committee is to examine issues related to Atlantic offshore renewable development, as well as commercial and recreational fisheries. McCay serves as the chair of the committee.
Rutgers Cooperative Extension faculty received national awards at the 2017 National Epsilon Sigma Phi (ESP) Conference. Jeannette Rea Keywood, state 4-H agent in the Department of 4-H Youth Development, received the Distinguished Service Award for the Northeast Region while Robin Brumfield, farm management specialist and professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, was recognized with the International Service Award for the Northeast Region.
RCE agricultural agents Wesley Kline (Cumberland County) and Meredith Melendez (Mercer County) and the NJAES on-farm food safety team were awarded the National Association of County Agricultural Agents Search for Excellence National Award for Farm Health and Safety.
Joseph Heckman, extension specialist in the Department of Plant Pathology, was awarded a two-year USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program grant for the project,“Farmer-generated training and equipment solutions for producing and processing value-added grains.” This grant is in partnership with the Organic Growers’ Research and Information-Sharing Network (OGRIN), and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New JErsey (NOFA-NJ).
Department of Plant Biology researchers Stacy Bonos, professor; William Meyer, professor; Josh Honig, research associate; Ning Zhang, associate professor; Bingru Huang, distinguished professor; James Murphy, extension specialist; and Bruce Clarke, extension specialist and director of the Rutgers Center for Turfgrass Science, are part of a multi-state team awarded $5.4 million grant to promote greater adoption of low-input fine fescue turfgrass into landscapes. The Rutgers portion of the grant is $1.96 million. Rutgers’ focus on the multi-institution project, “Increasing Low-Input Turfgrass Adoption Through Breeding, Innovation, and Public Education,” is to find solutions to the plant diseases that affect fine fescue grasses and identify the genetic markers associated with improved low-input turf performance.
Bill Sciarappa, county agent and department head, Cooperative Extension of Monmouth County, Vivian Quinn, program associate, RCE of Monmouth County and Dan Ward, director of the Rutgers Agricultural Research and Extension Center and assistant extension specialist in pomology in the Department of Plant Biology, have been named the American Society for Horticultural Science Outstanding Education Publication Award winners for papers published in 2016 for their joint submission, “Comparing Conventional, Hybrid, and Distance Learning Courses in Horticulture,” published in HortTechnology.
Jim Simon, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Biology, was awarded “The 2017 Chancellor’s Award for International Impact” at the Chancellor’s Celebration of Faculty Excellence. He was honored with a plaque “in recognition of his more than twenty-five years of collaborative research in sub-Saharan Africa and his unrivaled contributions to international agriculture and rural development, which uses innovative and transformative approaches to provide individuals and communities with the tools to achieve economic independence.”
RCE Water Resources Program and the NY/NJ Baykeeper were awarded a Conservation Achievement Award by the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary Program for their work establishing municipal action teams in seven New Jersey ‘combined sewer system’ (CSS) communities to foster community engagement and advocate for implementation of green infrastructure.
Changlu Wang, associate extension specialist in the Department of Entomology, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $50,000. The project, “Developing Aesthetic Injury Level for German Cockroach IPM,” is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Alan Robock, distinguished professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was awarded a grant totaling $2,982,206 over three years. The project, “Environmental and Human Impacts of Nuclear War,” is supported by The Open Philanthropy Project.
Nicholi Vorsa, research professor in the Department of Plant Biology and director of the Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension, NJAES, received an award totaling $456,727. The project, “Targeting Cranberry Fruit Chemistry to Develop Cultivars with Novel Phytochemical Profiles for Healthier, Reduced ‘Added-Sugar’ Products,” is supported by USDA-National Institute for Food and Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.
Ethan Schoolman, assistant professor in the Department of Human Ecology, received the Campus Sustainability Research Award from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education for ‘outstanding achievements and progress toward sustainability.’ AASHE bestows its prestigious awards on the institutions and individuals that are helping to lead higher education to a sustainable future.
Lena Struwe, professor in the departments of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, and Plant Biology, was elected to a six-year term as a member of the council of the International Plant Taxonomists Association.
Debashish Bhattacharya, distinguished professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and natural Resources, was awarded the 2017 Phycological Society of America (PSA) Award of Excellence, which honors scientists for a record of sustained scholarly activity, including teaching and service, who have had a major impact on the field of phycology (algal science).
Michael Kennish, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is the recipient of the 2017 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. Marquis Who’s Who—the world’s premier publisher of biographical profiles—has cited Kennish for his outstanding contributions to the field of estuarine, coastal, and marine sciences and the award recognizes in particular his seminal research of anthropogenic effects on estuarine, coastal, and marine environments, and his numerous scholarly books and other publications that have served to educate a generation of young scientists.
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has given its 2017 Professional Award of Excellence in Research to a multinational team of researchers, including team leader Kathleen John-Alder, associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture, for the joint project, “Fluid Territory: A Journey into Svalbard, Norway,” which explores and documents this far northern area in order to transform our thinking about the Arctic and thus plan for its future and determine its fate.
Dipak Sarkar, distinguished professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and director of the Endocrine Program at Rutgers, was awarded the 2017 Distinguished Researcher Award by the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA). Director of the Biomedical Division of the Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies, Sarkar’s work on the impact of excessive alcohol intake on endocrine and neuroendocrine regulation of cell function and metabolism was considered seminal by the awards committee.
Malin Pinsky, assistant professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $86,036. The project, “Projecting and Communicating Changes in North American Marine Species Distributions,” is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The following faculty and staff were recognized with 2017 “Celebration of Excellence” Awards from SEBS and NJAES:
Teaching Excellence Award
Jason Grabosky, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources
Research Excellence Award
Yana Bromberg, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
International Excellence Award
Max Haggblom, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
Staff Excellence Award
Jessie Maguire, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
Charlotte Fuller, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences
Team Excellence Award
Nurture thru Nature
Barbara Munson Goff “Teacher of the Year,” selected by Alpha Zeta Fraternity, Judith Storch, Department of Nutritional Sciences and Cook campus dean for undergraduate education.
The Water Resources Association of The Delaware River Basin bestowed the Ruth Patrick Excellence in Education Award on the Rutgers Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory for its world-class research, transfer of knowledge to fishermen, aquaculturists, and state agencies, and outreach programs to students of all ages in support of sustainable management of the Delaware Bay’s resources.
Rutgers Gardens was presented with a Hoticultural Landmark Award by the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS). Through this designation, Rutgers Gardens joins an elite group of horticultural sites like the New York Botanical garden, the United State Botanical Garden in Washington D.C., and Monticello, President Thomas Jefferson’s home in Virginia, which received the society’s first Horticultural Landmark designation.
The Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program was honored with three Merit Awards from the New Jersey American Society of Landscape Architects. Award-winning projects included the “Green Infrastructure Guidance Manual for New Jersey,” “Woodbridge Township Floodplain Restoration Plan,” and “McKeown Elementary School Rain Garden Partnership Project.”
JeanMarie Hartman, associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $300,000. The project, “Research for Targeting Regulatory Protections to Vulnerable Forests in the Delaware River Watershed,” is supported by the William Penn Foundation.
Nilgun Tumer, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Biology, is the principal investigator of a five-year award totaling $2,182,115. The project, “Inhibitors targeting ribosome interactions of ricin,” is supported by the National Institute for Health.
Nicholi Vorsa, research professor in the Department of Plant Biology and director of the Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, received an award of $154,954. The project, “Isolation of Individual Proanthocyanidin (PAC) Compounds and Fractions from Cranberry and Cocoa” is supported by Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.
Andrew Wyenandt, extension specialist in vegetable pathology, Rutgers Agricultural Research and Extension Center, was honored with a Distinguished Service to Agriculture citation by the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture during the New Jersey State Agricultural Convention in Atlantic City in February.
The following SEBS faculty were recipients of Rutgers Raritan River Consortium minigrants of $7,500 that involve partnerships with Raritan stakeholders to support research by university faculty, staff, and postdoctoral researchers on Raritan River, basin, and bay resource issues:
- Olaf Jensen, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, with NJDEP and New Jersey American Water Company, for “Monitoring Fish Migration on the Raritan River: A Live Stream of Fish Ladder Passage.”
- Josh Kohut, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, and Robert Schuster, NJDEP Marine Water Monitoring Bureau, for “2017 Raritan River Water Quality Sampling: Introducing Rutgers Students to NJDEP Sampling and Quality Control Standards.”
- Max Häggblom, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, and wastewater treatment plants discharging to the Raritan, for “Anaerobic Biodegradability of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in Raritan River Sediments.”
- Beth Ravit, Department of Environmental Sciences, and Keith Cooper, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, with New York/New Jersey Baykeeper, for “Microplastic Pollution in the Raritan River.”
Gediminas Mainelis, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $161,306. The project, “The Investigation in the Characteristics of Nanoparticle Release from Nano-Enabled Consumer Sprays (FP2395),” is supported by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Hernan Arango, research programmer in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $148,000. The project, “A Terrain-Following Ocean Modeling System,” is supported by the Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research.
Lena Struwe, professor in the departments of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, and Plant Biology, was elected a council member to the International Association of Plant Taxonomists, a global organization uniting researchers in botanical systematics across the world.
Jerry Baron, executive director of the IR-4 Project, NJAES, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $356,559. The project, “Development and Utilization of Sufficient Residue Data to Satisfy International Data Requirements for Establishment of Appropriate Maximum Residue Levels to Facilitate Exports of U.S.-Grown Specialty Crops,” is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Tamar Barkay, distinguished professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, and Nicole Fahrenfeld, associate professor in the School of Engineering, are co-principal investigators of an award totaling $191,904. The project, “Unlocking the Microbial Ecology of Environmental Antibiotic Resistance,” is supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tracy Anthony, associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $2,730,392. The project, “Homeostatic Responses to Amino Acid Insufficiency,” is supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Mike De Luca, director of the Aquaculture Innovation Center, NJAES, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $709,558. The project, “Research, Education, Coastal Training, and Stewardship Programs at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve,” is supported by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
2016
Henry John-Alder, professor and chair of the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, and Pal Maliga, professor of plant biology in the Department of Plant Biology and principal investigator at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, were named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows. They joined eight other Rutgers professors who were among 391 fellows from the U.S. and abroad who were chosen by their peers for this prestigious honor, for “efforts to advance science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished.”
Tung-Ching Lee, distinguished professor in the Department of Food Science, was named University Chair Professor of Food Science and Technology by the National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan.
David Robinson, professor in the Department of Geography and for the past 25 years the head of the Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist, which is supported by NJAES, received 2017 Life Achievement Honors from the Association for American Geographers. An excerpt of his award reads: “David Robinson is a multi-dimensional geographer who has achieved extraordinary success and impact in many domains simultaneously; he is an international and national scientific leader in cryosphere and hydrological studies; he is the scholarly public face of climate and weather for the State of New Jersey; he is a long-serving departmental leader; and he is a beloved teacher…who has mentored many geographers who have gone on to become important scholars and leaders in their own right.”
Scott Glenn, distinguished professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and co-director of the Center for Ocean Observing Leadership, was named the recipient of the Oceanography Award for “outstanding contributions to the field of oceanography” by the Society for Underwater Technology.
Christopher Obropta, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and extension specialist in water resources, received the 2016 National Epsilon Sigma Phi Visionary Leadership Award for the Northeast Region.
Randy Gaugler, distinguished professor in the Department of Entomology and director of the NJAES Mosquito Control Program, received the 2017 Medal of Honor, the association’s highest award, from the American Mosquito Control Association for his work and leadership in the field of managing mosquitoes.
Elisabeth Sikes, associate professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $104,926. The project, “Pacific Ocean Stratification since the Last Ice Age: New Constraints from Benthic Foraminifera,” is supported by the National Science Foundation.
Benjamin Horton, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, was named the winner of the Plinius Medal by the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The award honors scientists for their important contributions to the Earth, planetary and space sciences.
Sarah Ralston, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, received the inaugural “Educator of the Year” award from the New Jersey Veterinary Foundation for her long career of nurturing pre-veterinary and veterinary students.
Daniel Van Abs, associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology, won a 2016 Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award through his collaborative work with Jersey Water Works (JWW), in the category of water resources.
Barbara O’Neill, distinguished professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resources Economics and extension specialist in financial resource management, received a Distinguished Fellow award from the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education, which honors innovation, expertise, and leadership in financial counseling and education.
Barbara Tangel, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics, received the Carolyn Sebastianelli Distinguished Member Award from the New Jersey Dietetic Association (NJDA). The award, the highest given by the NJDA, honors a member who has been a role model, demonstrating commitment to the nutritional needs of the community, leadership, mentoring, service to others, and professionalism and high ethical standards in practice.
Max Häggblom, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, was named a U.S.-Faculty Scholar for the 2016-17 academic year by the Vietnam Education Foundation, an independent federal government agency created by the U.S. Congress with the mission to strengthen the U.S.-Vietnam bilateral relationship through educational exchanges in the STEMM fields. Häggblom also received a grant from the VEF U.S. Faculty Scholar Program to teach a course in environmental microbiology in Vietnam.
Jack Rabin, associate director for farm programs, NJAES, was awarded the 2016 New Jersey Farm Bureau Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award, presented at the Annual Meeting of the Farm Bureau, the state’s largest membership organization representing farmers and the wider community of agriculture.
Mark Vodak, associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, and extension specialist in forestry, received the W.D. Hagenstein Communicator Award from the Society of American Foresters (SAF). This award is given to an SAF member who leads innovative and exemplary communications initiatives and program that increase public understanding of forestry and natural resources.
Mark Robson, distinguished service professor and professor, Department of Plant, was unanimously selected to receive the 2016 Frank J. Osborne Memorial Award by the New Jersey Association of County and City Health Officials (NJACCHO) at the Atlantic City Convention Center on November 16. The award, the highest honor bestowed upon a member of New Jersey’s public health community, recognizes meritorious achievement in public health.
Pal Maliga, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and distinguished professor in the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, won the Lawrence Bogorad Award for Excellence in Plant Biology Research from the American Society of Plant Biologists.
Paul Breslin, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, has been elected to Distinguished Fellowship in the National Academies of Practice (NAP) and the Psychology Academy.
Margaret Brennan-Tonetta, associate vice president for economic development at Rutgers and associate director, NJAES, was appointed to the Board of Directors of Einstein’s Alley, a private, non-profit economic development initiative located in Central New Jersey whose mission is to foster economic growth through advocacy and delivery of services.
Co-PI Rachael Shwom, associate professor, and Cara Cuite, associate research professor, Department of Human Ecology, are part of a multi-university team awarded a five-year grant of $2,983,358 by the National Science Foundation, through its Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water program. The subcontract to Rutgers is $419,184. The project, “Reducing Household Food, Energy and Water Consumption: A Quantitative Analysis of Interventions and Impacts of Conservation,” runs from October 2016-October 2021.
Christopher Obropta, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and extension specialist in water resources, was awarded $500,000 from the William Penn Foundation for the RCE Water Resources Program’s project, “Technical Support Program for Municipalities and Watershed Partners.”
Robert Kopp, associate professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and associate director of the Rutgers Energy Institute, is co-principal investigator of an award totaling $3 million along with Rebecca Jordan (Department of Human Ecology), Lisa Auermueller (Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve), Clint Andrews (Bloustein) and Jie Gong (Civil & Environmental Engineering). The project, “NSF Research Traineeship in Coastal Climate Risk and Resilience,” is supported by the National Science Foundation.
Max Häggblom, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, has been named a US-Faculty Scholar by the Vietnam Education Foundation for the 2016-2017 academic year.
Tom Leustek, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, and associate dean of academic administration, was appointed the Academic Leadership Program Fellow from Rutgers to the Big Ten Academic Alliance for the 2016-17 academic year.
Stacy Bonos, associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, was elected a 2016 Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) Fellow, the highest recognition bestowed by the CSSA to its members based on their professional achievements and meritorious service.
Cristi Palmer, ornamental horticulture program manager, IR-4Project, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $121,435. The project, “Enhanced Mitigation and Detection of Impatiens, Cucurbit, Hops, and Basil Downy Mildews,” is supported by the Department of Agriculture.
Mehmet Uzumcu, associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $232,500. The project, “Detrimental Effects on Female Reproduction of in Utero and Neonatal Exposure to Common Phthalates DEHP and Its Replacement DINP,” is supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Larry Katz, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and director of Rutgers Cooperative Extension, has been named a Fellow in the Society for the Study of Reproduction.
Scott Glenn, distinguished professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and co-director of the Center for Ocean Observing Leadership, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $3.1 million. The project, “MARACOOS: Preparing for a Changing Mid-Atlantic,” is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Andrew Wyenandt, extension specialist in vegetable pathology, Rutgers Agricultural Research and Extension Center, is the principal investigator, and Jim Simon, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, and Ramu Govindasamy, professor and chair of the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, are co-principal investigators, of an award totaling $563,852. The project, “A Production System for High Value Crops at Risk from Downy Mildew, Integrating Detection, Breeding, Extension, and Education,” is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Michael Camasso, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, and Radha Jagannathan, professor of statistics in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, received the New Brunswick Education Foundation Board of Directors Outstanding Contribution Award for “outstanding innovative design and implementation of educational enrichment activities and curriculum that impacts New Brunswick Public School students through the wonders of nature and natural science.”
Diana Roopchand, assistant professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $422,247. The project, “Interactions of Dietary Polyphenols, Gut Microbiota and Intestinal Epithelium,” is supported by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.
Tom Leustek, professor in the Department of Biology and Pathology, and associate dean of academic administration, was named a guest associate editor for PLOS Genetics, an open access, peer-reviewed journal published monthly by Public Library of Science (PLOS).
Richard Lutz, distinguished professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, and director of the Rutgers Center for Deep Sea Ecology and Biotechnology, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $342,987. The project, “Biomass Production from Deep Sea Organisms,” is supported by a major pharmaceutical company.
Cara Cuite, associate research professor in the Department of Human Ecology, and community co-directors Patricia Sadowski and Jennifer Shukaitis, New Brunswick Board of Education, are recipients of the 2016-2017 Community-University Research Partnership Grants for New Brunswick. Their project evaluates Breakfast After the Bell, a program that offers free breakfast to all K–8 students and was implemented in the New Brunswick Public Schools in 2014. This grant program funds the work of faculty members and community partners who are collaborating on new and existing research projects that advance scholarly knowledge while providing meaningful benefit to the New Brunswick community.
Michael J. Camasso, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, and Radha Jagannathan, professor in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy served as distinguished visiting research scholars in France. They were selected by the Centre d’Études et de Recherches sur les Qualifications, a joint project of the Ministère de l’Éducation and the Ministère du Travail in Paris, to collaborate with French and German researchers around issues and policies addressing youth unemployment.
Siobain Duffy, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources and Ning Zhang, Department of Plant Biology & Pathology and Department of Biochemistry & Microbiology, were selected as Chancellor’s Scholars for 2016-2017. The Rutgers New Brunswick Strategic Plan called for the creation of a Chancellor’s Excellence Fund, which designates a select group of faculty members at the associate professor level as “Chancellor’s Scholars” who are nominated by their respective deans.
Christopher Obropta, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and extension specialist in water resources, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $470,000. The project, “New Technical Assistance Program for Combined Sewer Overflow Communities,” is supported by the Surdna Foundation.
Anne Nielsen, assistant extension specialist in the Department of Entomology, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $299,953. The project, “IPM-CPR: A Systems-Level Approach to Manage Brown Marmorated Stink Bug and Conserve Beneficial Insects in Tree Fruit,” is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Karen Schaich, associate professor in the Department of Food Science, won the 2016 Stephen S. Chang Award for Lipid and Flavor Science from the Institute of Food Technologists.
Lena Struwe, associate professor in the departments of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, and Plant Biology and Pathology, received a 2016 Warren I. Sussman Award for Excellence in Teaching from Rutgers University.
The following faculty and staff were recognized with 2016 “Celebration of Excellence” Awards from SEBS and NJAES:
Teaching Excellence Award
Marci Meixler, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources
Research Excellence Award
Jennifer Francis, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences
Outreach Excellence Award
Christopher Obropta, Department of Environmental Science
International Excellence Award
Weilin Huang, Department of Environmental Science
Team Excellence Award: Rutgers On-Farm Food Safety Team
Christian Kleingunther, USDA
Wesley Kline, RCE
Meredith Melendez, RCE
Donald Schaffner, Department of Food Science
Jennifer Todd, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Food Science
Staff Excellence Award
Dalynn Knigge, Office of Continuing and Professional Education
Jenice Sabb, SEBS Educational Opportunity Fund Office
Barbara Munson Goff “Teacher of the Year,” selected by Alpha Zeta Fraternity
Rick Ludescher, Dean of Academic Programs; Department of Food Science
Christopher Obropta, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and extension specialist in water resources, received a 2016 Education and Public Service Award from the Universities Council on Water Resources.
Donna Fennell, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $345,968. The project, “Microbial Processes at AOC1of Chamber Works,” is supported by a corporate contract.
Richard Lathrop, professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, and director of the Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $38,937. The project, “Shorebird Conservation in Brazil and Delaware Bay,” is supported by the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act 2015 IMPACT Program.
Jerry Baron, executive director, IR-4 Project, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $33,000. The project, “Phosphourous Acid MRL Barrier to EU Export of California Tree Nuts: Residue Studies,” is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Rich Lutz, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, has been named a National Fellow of the Explorers Club, a U.S.-based international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research, scientific exploration, resource conservation, and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore.
Lena Struwe, associate professor in the departments of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, and Plant Biology and Pathology, was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.
Loredana Quadro, associate professor in the Department of Food Science and member of the Rutgers Center for Lipid Research at the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $316,147. The project, “The Asymmetric Cleavage of Beta-Carotene in Mammalian Embryonic Development,” is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Michael Westendorf, associate professor and associate extension specialist in the Department of Animal Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $162,000. The project, “Best Management Practices Implementation Program,” is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Louis Cooperhouse, director of the Rutgers Food Innovation Center, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $150,000. The project, “Development of Food Business Innovation Network (FoodBIN) and Best Practice/Next Generation Models of Food Industry Incubation and Acceleration,” is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Food Innovation Center received a $70,000 grant from the Paterson Restoration Corporation to lead a feasibility study on creating a food business incubation program in Paterson.
Cesar Rodriguez-Saona, associate extension specialist in the Department of Entomology, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $331,480. The project, “Sustainable Strategies to Manage Spotted Wing Drosophila in U. S. Fruit Crops,” is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
2015
Bruce Clarke, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology; extension specialist of turfgrass pathology; and director of the Rutgers Center for Turfgrass Science, received the 2016 USGA Green Section Award from the United States Golf Association.
Diane Adams, assistant professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, received the 2015 Bergmann Memorial Award, which recognizes promising young scientists who are recipients of new grants from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation.
Ilya Raskin, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology and president of the Global Institute for Bio-Exploration, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $2,879,891 over five years. The project, “Botanicals and Metabolic Resiliency,” is supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Loredana Quadro, associate professor in the Department of Food Science, received the 2015 First-year Interest Group Seminars (FIGS) Faculty Mentor Award.
Richard Lathrop, professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, was appointed by the Rutgers Board of Governors as the inaugural holder of the new Johnson Family Chair in Water Resources and Watershed Ecology. In his role as chair, Lathrop leads an interdisciplinary program to study how human activities in upland watersheds affect downstream aquatic ecosystems and how that knowledge can be applied to promote restoration and better stewardship of water resources.
Benjamin Horton, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, was named the winner of the Plinius Medal by the European Geosciences Union (EGU). Since 2012, the Plinius medal, which was established by the EGU Natural Hazards Division, recognizes interdisciplinary research in natural hazards by mid-career scientists and honors scientists for their important contributions to the Earth, planetary and space sciences.
Tamar Barkay, distinguished professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, was elevated to the rank of fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). A top national association, AAAS selects its fellows based on their efforts in advancing science or fostering applications considered scientifically or socially distinguished. Barkay was cited for “distinguished contributions to the field of environmental science, particularly for advancing our understanding of how microorganisms effect the fate of mercury in the environment.”
Joseph Goffreda, associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology and director of the Rutgers Fruit and Ornamental Research Extension Center, was honored with the “Inventor of the Year Award” by the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame. Goffreda was honored for breeding a hybrid peach (NJF16) marketed under the name TangOs®, which has a combination of attributes attractive to commercial producers and consumers, yet is resistant to major diseases, particularly bacterial spot.
Mark Robson, professor and chair of the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, was named a Distinguished Service Professor by the Rutgers Board of Governors. Robson was recognized for “sustained and exceptional service to the University, to the academic profession, to the state or nation, or to the broader community by a faculty member at the full professorial rank.”
Ning Zhang, associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, and Siobain Duffy, associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, received prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation. Zhang’s award is worth $592,980 over five years and Duffy’s award is worth $675,000 over five years.
Serpil Guran, director of the Rutgers EcoComplex, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $157,517. The project, “Achieving a Greener and Safer Food Supply Chain in the Newark, N.J. Region: Realizing Pollution Prevention, Energy Efficiency, and Water Conservation Benefits through Sustainability and Resiliency Training,” is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and will involve the Rutgers EcoComplex and Food Innovation Center.
Richard Lutz, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, was honored by the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences with a NOGI Award, the oldest and most prestigious award in the diving industry, which celebrated Lutz’s contributions to the underwater world at the 55th NOGI Awards Gala in Orlando, FL.
Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) was awarded a grant of $460,170 by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as part of $17 million in new federal funding to benefit beginning farmers and ranchers across the U.S. The three-year grant to Rutgers, awarded through the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program administered by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will be used by RCE to educate new and beginning farmers in New Jersey on how to grow high-value crops on small acreage.
Ramu Govindasamy, professor and chair of the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, and associate director of the New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $99,803. The project, “Assessment of Organic Produce Marketing Opportunities in the Mid-Atlantic Region,” is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Naa Oyo Kwate, associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology, and in the Department of Africana Studies, School of Arts and Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $142,172. The project, “The City as Health Policy,” is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Joan Bennett, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, was presented the Waksman Teaching Award of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology. The award recipient “shall have been an active full time professor at a recognized institution of higher education for a minimum of 10 years or has attained emeritus status.”
Lena Struwe, associate professor in the departments of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, and Plant Biology and Pathology, and director of the Chrysler Herbarium at Rutgers, was awarded the 2015 American Society of Plant Taxonomists’ Innovations in Plant Systematics Education Prize (IPSEP) for developing novel and innovative resources for teaching plant systematics.
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources faculty Brooke Maslo, assistant professor and extension specialist in wildlife ecology, Malin Pinsky, molecular ecologist and assistant professor, and Nina Fefferman, epidemiologist and associate professor, received funding of more than $300,000 dollars from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to investigate strategies to fight White-nose Syndrome, a fungal disease in bats.
Jenny Carleo, agricultural and resource management agent, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cape May County, was recognized with the 2015 Distinguished Service Award by the National Association of County Agricultural Agents.
Carey Williams, associate director of extension at the Equine Science Center and associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, won the 2015 American Society of Animal Science and Equine Science Society’s Equine Science Award.
Changlu Wang, associate extension specialist in urban pest management in the Department of Entomology, received the 2015 Award of Excellence from the Northeast Cooperative Extension Directors, the highest award presented by the directors of Extension in the northeast.
Joan Bennett, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, was elected Secretary of Division VI of the National Academy of Sciences.
Bingru Huang, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology and graduate program director in Plant Biology, won the Tengtou Agricultural Science Award given by the American Society of Agronomy.
V. Monica Bricelj, research professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences & Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, and adjunct professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution & Natural Resources, was awarded a Mexico-U.S. Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange COMEXUS/Fulbright-Garcia Robles fellowship to conduct research at the Shellfish Biotechnology Laboratory at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California in Mexico from August 2015-July 2016.
Oscar Schofield, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $929,919. The project, “Polar Interdisciplinary Coordinated Education,” is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Josh Kohut, associate professor in the Department of Marine & Coastal Sciences and Pamela McElwee, associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology were named inaugural “Chancellor’s Scholars” by the New Brunswick Chancellor’s Office. Robert Kopp, SAS associate professor and associate director of the Rutgers Energy Institute, was also named a Chancellor Scholar.
Ramu Govindasamy, professor and extension specialist in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, was selected to receive the Emerald Award of Excellence as the Highly Commended Paper, “Agritourism Consumer’s Participation in Wine Tasting Events: An Econometric Analysis,” by the International Journal of Wine Business Research. The paper was co-authored with Kathleen Kelley of The Pennsylvania State University.
George Carman, Board of Governors Professor in the Department of Food Science; chief scientific officer of the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health; and director of the Rutgers Center for Lipid Research, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $2,067,434 over five years. This is the second installment of a 10-year MERIT award. The project, “Phospholipid Metabolism and Membrane Function,” is being supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Leonard Bielory, an allergy specialist with the Rutgers Center of Environmental Prediction at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, was appointed by Governor Chris Christie as a public member to the New Jersey Clean Air Council.
William Hallman, professor and chair of the Department of Human Ecology, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $450,000. The project, “Food Nanotechnology: Expanding the Parameters of Consumer Acceptance,” is funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Malin Pinsky, assistant professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $180,745. The project, “Climate Impact Projections for U.S. Fisheries,” is being supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
The following five SEBS faculty were honored by the university for their “outstanding contributions in the classroom, to their disciplines, or for the benefit of the community or world”:
Siobain Duffy, Ecology Evolution and Natural Resources:
Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence & the Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence
Ning Zhang, Plant Biology and Pathology:
Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence
Tamar Barkay, Biochemistry and Microbiology:
Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research
Mark Robson, Plant Biology and Pathology:
Warren I. Susman Award for Excellence in Teaching
Tom Rudel, Human Ecology:
Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research
Barbara O’Neill, extension specialist in financial management, won two awards in the“Best Personal Finance Resource” and “Best Personal Finance Activity” categories in the Next Gen Personal Finance’s First Annual Financial Literacy Month Contest.
The following faculty received Rutgers Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs grants for their proposals under the category “International Collaborative Research Grant for Tenured Faculty.”
Eric Lam, Department of Plant Biology and Pathology
“Enabling the creation of a pilot facility for wastewater-to-biomass pipeline in the Northeast region of Brazil.”
Rick Ludescher, Department of Food Science
“Pathways to International Study at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.”
Heidi Hausermann, Department of Human Ecology
“Producing disease in commodity landscapes: A pilot study from Ghana’s alluvial gold mining belt.”
Lena Struwe, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources
“Formation of a world-wide urban plant evolution and education network.”
The following faculty and staff were recognized with 2015 “Celebration of Excellence” Awards from SEBS and NJAES:
Teaching Excellence Award
Lena Struwe, departments of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, and Plant Biology and Pathology
Research Excellence Award
Robert J. Chant, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences
Outreach Excellence Award
Rachel E. Lyons, Department of 4-H Youth Development
International Excellence Award
Scott Glenn, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences
Oscar M. Schofield, Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences
Staff Excellence Award
Marsha Morin, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources
John Sarti, Department of Plant Biology and Pathology
Barbara Munson Goff “Teacher of the Year,” selected by Alpha Zeta Fraternity
Timothy Casey, Director of the General Honors Program; Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources
Lena Struwe, associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, was appointed as a member-at-large of the Board of Directors of the Organization of Tropical Studies from March 2015-March 2018.
Richard Lutz, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, was recognized by the National Shellfisheries Association, Inc., with its Life Member Award for his “exemplary service and outstanding contributions to the National Shellfisheries Association and to shellfisheries science and education.”
Kenneth Karamichael, senior associate director in the Office of Continuing Professional Education (OCPE) and director of the Transitional Education and Employment Management (TEEM) Gateway, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $2,122,000. The project, “New Agriculture for a New Generation: Recharging Greek Youth to Revitalize the Agriculture and Food Sector of the Greek Economy,” is funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
Sue Shapses, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, and acting chair of the Department of Exercise Science and Sport Studies, School of Arts and Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $521,201. The project, “Alpha-Glucosidase Inhibitor and Satiety,” is funded by a corporate contract.
Christopher Obropta, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, , and extension specialist in water resources with Rutgers Cooperative Extension, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $489,156. The project, “Green Infrastructure for the City of Perth Amboy,” is being supported by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Nilgun Tumer, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, is the corresponding author of the original research paper, “Trichothecene Mycotoxins Inhibit Mitochondrial Translation—Implication for the Mechanism of Toxicity,” based on research conducted in her lab. The paper won the first annual “Toxins Best Paper Award” for 2015. Established by the Editorial Board, the award recognizes “outstanding papers related to biotoxins and toxinology that have been published in [the journal] Toxins.”
Three 4-H programs originated by Julie Karavan, 4-H agent in Cumberland County, were recognized with program of excellence awards from the New Jersey Association of 4-H Agents.
David Bushek, associate professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, and director of the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, is the principal investigator—along with co-principal investigators Lisa Calvo, aquaculture program coordinator, and Tal Ben-Horin, postdoctoral researcher at the Haskin Lab—of an award totaling $190,421. The project, “Minimizing Risks of Vibrio Bacteria in Farm-Raised Oysters Grown in Mid-Atlantic Intertidal Environments”, is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Malin Pinsky, assistant professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $139,990 over two years. The project, “Genetic Monitoring to Improve Fish Stock Assessments,” is funded by the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium.
Richard VanVranken, agricultural agent and chair of Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Atlantic County, was the recipient of the 2015 Distinguished Service to New Jersey Agriculture Award from the State Board of Agriculture. VanVranken received the award at the annual New Jersey Agricultural Convention in Atlantic City, NJ.
Faith Belanger, associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $90,000 over three years. The project, “Understanding Endophyte-Mediated Dollar Spot Resistance in Red Fescue,” is funded by the United States Golf Association.
Jeff Boyd, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, is the principal investigator of a corporate contract totaling $145,740. The project, “The Effect of Zinc and Tin on the Growth and Oxidative Stress Response of Key Oral Bacteria,” is funded by Colgate-Palmolive.
Michael Camasso, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, is designated the visiting scholar for the study of youth employment policy by the vice-rector’s Office for Scientific Policy and Research at the University of Granada, Spain. Camasso will lecture and lead a research team that will examine the role played by the inter-generational transmission of values on youth labor market participation.
Kenneth McKeever, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and Associate Director at the Rutgers Equine Science Center, was appointed to the new scientific advisory board of the Association of Racing Commissioners International, a top-tier international body of regulators, scientists and others involved in the oversight of equine and canine racing.
Thomas Molnar, assistant professor, and Josh Honig, research associate, both in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, are the principal investigators of an award totaling $500,000. The project, “Securing and Expanding the U.S. Hazelnut Industry through Breeding for Resistance to Eastern Filbert Blight,” is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
2014
Nicholi Vorsa, research professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology and director of the Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, has been named fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
Ben Horton, professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, received the 2014 Ocean Sciences Voyager Award from the American Geophysical Union. The award is given to mid-career scientists in recognition of significant contributions and expanding leadership in ocean sciences.
John Reinfelder, professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $70,285. The project, “Stable Isotopic Composition of Mercury in Hackensack Estuary Sediments,” is funded by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Daniel Hoffman, associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, received a Fulbright Grant for research and teaching in Brazil.
Eric Lam, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, received a Fulbright Grant for research and teaching in Brazil.
Nilgun Tumer, distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, has been appointed chair of the Gene Discovery and Engineering Resistance Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative for a two-year term beginning January 1, 2015.
Anne Marie Carlton, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, has been appointed to a newly established ad hoc National Research Council committee on the future of atmospheric chemistry, whose goal is to identify priorities and strategic steps forward for atmospheric chemistry research for the next decade.
At the 2014 Green Expo held in Atlantic City and hosted by the NJ Turfgrass Association (NJTA), the Rutgers Organic Land Care Program was presented the NJTA’s Environmental Stewardship Award “in recognition of a continuing commitment to environmental preservation and conservation.” Program coordinators Amy Rowe and Michele Bakacs, both environmental and resource management agents for Rutgers Cooperative Extension, were on hand to receive the award.
Lisa A. Rodenburg, associate professor of environmental organic chemistry in the Department of Environmental Sciences, received the Excellence in Review Award from Environmental Science and Technology.
Robert Kopp, associate professor in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences and associate director of the Rutgers Energy Institute, has been named a 2015 Leopold Leadership Fellow for his work in environmental decision making.
Eleanor Bochenek, marine scientist and director of the Fisheries Cooperative Center at the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Cape May Forum.
James Murphy, extension specialist in turfgrass management, has been elected Fellow of the Crop Science Society of America, the highest recognition bestowed by the society.
Laura Lawson, professor and chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, was named one of the “Thirty Most Admired Educators for 2015” in a report by DesignIntelligence, which also ranked the department fourth among the top undergraduate landscape architecture programs on the East Coast. Lawson was the only educator listed from a department of landscape architecture.
Lisa Calvo, program coordinator at Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, is the principal investigator of an award totaling $119,865. The project, “Establishing a Resilient Coastal Shorelines Program for the State of New Jersey,” is funded by the U.S. Department of Interior.
Richard VanVranken, agricultural agent and chair of Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Atlantic County, was the recipient of the 2014 Northeast Region Excellence in Extension award from the Cooperative Extension Committee on Organization & Policy.
Karl Maramorosch, emeritus member of the Department of Entomology, was awarded the Honoris Causa Doctorate by his alma mater, the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, at a ceremony in Warsaw in October.
Dave Lee, agricultural and resource management agent for Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Salem County, was awarded both the County Faculty Person of the Year and Award of Excellence for Faculty at the 2014 Rutgers Cooperative Extension Annual Conference.
Peter Oudemans, extension specialist in blueberry/cranberry pathology, was named Specialist of the Year Award at the 2014 Rutgers Cooperative Extension Annual Conference.
Anita Wagner, clerk at Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Atlantic County, received the Award of Excellence for Support Staff at the 2014 Rutgers Cooperative Extension Annual Conference.
Marycarmen Kunicki, 4-H senior program coordinator, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Passaic County, received the Award of Excellence for a Program Associate at the 2014 Rutgers Cooperative Extension Annual Conference.
Kendrin Dyitt, 4-H urban program associate in Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Atlantic County, received the Diversity Award for the 4-H Youth Development Department at the 2014 Rutgers Cooperative Extension Annual Conference.
Amy Rowe, environmental and resource management agent, Rutgers Cooperative Extension Essex and Passaic Counties, received the Diversity Award for the Agricultural and Resource Management Agents Department at the 2014 Rutgers Cooperative Extension Annual Conference.
Miss Harmon, urban 4-H program associate, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Mercer County, received the Equal Employment Opportunity Award at the 2014 Rutgers Cooperative Extension Annual Conference.
Jenny Carleo, agricultural and resource management agent, Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) of Cape May County; Robin Brumfield, farm management specialist; Jeffrey Heckman, videographer, Office of Continuing Professional Education; April Lippet-Faczak, administrator for Annie’s Project; Jennifer Matthews, project coordinator, RCE of Cape May County; Meredith Melendez, senior program coordinator, RCE of Mercer County; Barbara O’Neill, financial resource management specialist; and Nicholas Polanin, agricultural and resource management agent, RCE Extension of Somerset County received the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Team Award at the 2014 Rutgers Cooperative Extension Annual Conference for their work on Annie’s Project.
Mark Robson, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology and dean of Agricultural and Urban Programs, was presented with a Ramazzini Medal as a Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini, an international scientific society that examines critical issues in occupational and environmental medicine with a view towards action to prevent disease and promote health.
Barbara Turpin, distinguished professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Campus Dean for Undergraduate Education for the George H. Cook Campus, has been elected a 2014 Fellow of the American Association for Aerosol Research.
Malcolm Watford, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and director of the George H. Cook Scholars Program, was appointed Associate Editor for Molecular Nutrition for the journal, Animal Nutrition (Elsevier).
Tom Rudel, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Human Ecology, won the 2014 Gerald L. Young Book Award from the Society of Human Ecology for Defensive Environmentalists and Dynamics of Global Reform.
Brooke Maslo, assistant professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources and Rutgers NJAES specialist in wildlife ecology, received a 2014 Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey’s Women in Wildlife Award, which recognizes outstanding women for their achievements and advances in protecting New Jersey’s endangered and threatened wildlife species.
Mark Robson, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology and dean of Agricultural and Urban Programs, received the Sullivan Award from the New Jersey Public Health Association (NJPHA). Established in 1976 and named after Dennis J. Sullivan, a health officer who dedicated his life to improving the public health of New Jersey, it’s the NJPHA’s highest award presented to an individual for dedicated and outstanding public service and contributing to the cause of public health in New Jersey.
Alan Robock, distinguished professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and director of the Meteorology Undergraduate Program, is the winner of the Jule G. Charney Award of the American Meteorological Society in recognition of “highly significant research or development achievement in the atmospheric or hydrologic sciences.”
Ken Able, distinguished professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences and director of Rutgers Marine Field Station at Tuckerton, is the recipient of the 2014 Dr. Nancy Foster Habitat Conservation Award from NOAA’s Fisheries Office of Habitat Conservation for “extraordinary dedication, innovation, and excellence to the coastal and marine habitat conservation fields.”
Lily Young, professor of environmental microbiology and dean of international programs at SEBS, has been appointed provost of Rutgers University–New Brunswick, effective October 1.
Yana Bromberg, assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, was awarded a TUM-IAS Hans Fischer Fellowship for outstanding early-career scientists by the Institute for Advanced Study at the Technical University of Munich (TUM-IAS) in Germany.
Enrique Curchitser, associate professor of physical oceanography and modeling in the Department of Environmental Sciences, was appointed United States Academic Delegate to the North Pacific Marine Science Organization by the U.S. Department of State.
Michael De Luca, senior associate director of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, has been named chair of the Public Policy Committee and president-elect of the National Association of Marine Laboratories.
William Hallman, professor and chair of the Department of Human Ecology, has been appointed chair of the Risk Communication Advisory Committee by the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
William Meyer, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology and director of the Rutgers Turfgrass Breeding Project, was awarded the 2014 Impact Award by the National Association of Plant Breeders. The Impact Award “recognizes an individual active in the plant breeding field that has shown exceptional accomplishments in their research, teaching and collaborations with others.”
Daniel J. Van Abs, associate research professor in the Department of Human Ecology at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, has been elected chair of the N.J. Clean Water Council, a statutory advisory body to the commissioner of the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection, for 2014 and 2015. He is a public member of the council, appointed by the governor.
Max Häggblom, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, is the winner of the 2014 Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology Waksman Outstanding Teaching Award, funded by the Waksman Foundation for Microbiology.
Joan Bennett, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology and Associate Vice President of the Office for the Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics at Rutgers, was awarded the Stuart Mudd Award for Studies in Basic Microbiology by the International Union of Microbiological Societies in recognition of “outstanding, selfless endeavours and contributions in microbiology for the good of society.”
