December 2, 2004
The Iowa State University agronomy department received numerous national awards at the 2004 annual meetings of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) Oct. 31 – Nov. 4 in Seattle.
The department received awards for excellence in educational materials. ISU Extension’s Soybean Growth and Development publication by Palle Pedersen, agronomy assistant professor, received honors from ASA for excellence in educational materials in publications over 16 pages. The Crop Adviser Institute received six awards for excellence in educational materials from ASA for its distance education modules.
Agronomy faculty honored by the societies include Jeff Wolt, professor, who was named a fellow of ASA; Steve Fales, professor and chair, who began his term as CSSA president; and Alfred Blackmer, professor, who received the Carl Sprengel Agronomic Research Award from ASA.
Several Iowa State students also were honored at the national meetings. Leslie Westgate, agronomy senior, won the ASA-CSSA-SSA student manuscript contest and placed third in the student research symposium poster contest. Nathan Levan, senior in agronomy, placed fifth in the manuscript contest and Jason Haegele, senior in agronomy and agricultural engineering, placed fourth in the student speech contest.
ASA, CSSA and SSSA are professional/scientific and educational organizations helping their more than 11,000 members advance in their disciplines.