Recent CALS Spotlights

  • Italy-Bound Students to Learn Cooking the Mediterranean Way

    Made-from-scratch pasta, fresh mozzarella, whole-grain bread and savory olive oil – those are the kinds of items you might expect to see on a menu in a fine Italian restaurant, but on a University of Arizona science class syllabus? You can find them there, too, if you're among the lucky students taking part in the UA's new Mediterranean Diet and Health study abroad program.

     This week, 18 students will head to Verona, Italy as part of the inaugural program, which was created by Donato Romagnolo, professor in the department of nutritional sciences in the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, to teach students about the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. Students in the program have diverse academic backgrounds in disciplines including nutritional sciences, dietetics, public health, biology, physiology and more.

    A native of Padova, Italy, Romagnolo wanted to create a study abroad program that would expose students to the traditional diet and lifestyle habits of his native country while emphasizing the link between nutrition and health.

  • Tucson tech: Desert shrub guayule may be new major source of natural rubber

    Twenty years ago, scientists at the University of Arizona began studying guayule, a small desert shrub farmed as a source of natural rubber.

    The research helped one Arizona company commercialize guayule on a limited scale, producing a virtually allergy-free latex used in medical gloves.

    Now, the UA is studying guayule - pronounced "why-YOU-lee") - again as the plant is poised for wide-scale commercialization, and tire makers and others look to address a projected shortage of natural rubber.

    The UA recently was awarded a $3 million, five-year grant by Phoenix-based Yulex Corp. focused on breeding and developing guayule for the production of "biorubber" for medical, consumer and industrial applications.

  • UA-Yuma graduate, commencement speaker espouses gratitude

    Born and raised in Yuma, recent University of Arizona-Yuma graduate Aremy Téllez hopes to use her education to practice medicine in the local community.

    The speaker for UA-Yuma's 2013 commencement, Téllez graduated with a bachelor's degree in family studies and human development as well as a minor in public health.

    “I chose this program from the variety of degree options at UA-Yuma because it was related to my ambition to attend medical school. Although it may not seem like a traditional route to get to medical school, I looked into the courses and found that they would offer me a well-rounded education to understand my future patients in all aspects of life, whether physical, emotional or spiritual.

    “The degree not only offered courses in human development, which apply directly to my pre-medical studies, but also offered education in family planning, problems in childhood and adolescence, issues in aging — overall, it offered me a chance to learn about and identify with each stage of life, so as to better prepare myself for my future as a physician. I am certain that this degree helped me learn skills necessary for what the medical profession calls bedside manner.”

  • Biosystems Engineering Teams “Clean Up” at Engineering Design Day

    Three student design teams from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering took part in the University of Arizona’s 2013 Engineering Design Day on April 30.

    Engineering Design Day is an annual event that gives students a chance to apply a classroom education to a project of their choosing that solves real world problems. A total of 300 engineering seniors competed with 63 projects.

    The first team designed and built a portable hydroponics system for growing “Barley Fodder” and received the Ventana Medical Systems “Innovative Engineering Solutions” award for $1,000. This was one of three $1,000 awards offered this year.

    The design team consisted of Paola Espinoza, Katie McCracken and Greg York. The system was designed to supplement the daily feeding of a herd of alpacas by rotating racks of pallets filled with grown barley. One set of pallets is harvested daily with minimal human interference.

  • Externships to Give CALS Students Hands-On Experience

    The Arizona Cooperative Extension is offering student externships in community sustainability during the summer, with projects including community gardening and a farmers market.

    University of Arizona students accepted into the program will work directly with extension station agents on sustainability projects in counties around the state.

    "Our program was created with the idea of providing opportunities for University of Arizona students who are really interested in sustainability to get out of the University environment and work with our extension agents around the state," says Mark Apel, extension agent with the UA's Cooperative Extension in Cochise County.

    In its third year, the externship program is seeking up to 11 students for eight projects in seven counties. Students need sophomore standing or above, and though the externship is paid, housing is not provided, so a connection to a rural community is preferred.

  • Modified Formula Aims to Prevent Death in Premature Infants

    University of Arizona plant scientists are studying a novel approach at halting the leading cause of death in premature infants, adding a particular protein to soybeans that can be used in formula as a preventative measure.

    About 10 percent of infants in the United States are born premature and among the greatest risks those babies face is Necrotizing Entercolitis, or NEC, an infection and inflammation that causes destruction of the intestine. NEC affects about 10,000 babies a year in the country, and mortality rates are roughly 40 percent.

    Awarded a $275,000 National Institutes of Health proof-of-concept grant, Eliot Herman and Monica Schmidt are working to genetically modify soybeans to produce epidermal growth factor, or EGF, a protein that occurs naturally in mother's milk. EGF has been shown to prevent premature infants from developing NEC.

  • Good Days, Bad Days: When Should You Make Sacrifices in a Relationship?

    A pile of dirty dishes looms in the kitchen. It's your spouse's night to wash, but you know he or she has had a long day so you grab a sponge and step up to the plate. It's just one of the minor daily sacrifices you make in the name of love. But what if you had a long, stressful day, too?

    A new study from the University of Arizona, forthcoming in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, published by SAGE, suggests that while making sacrifices in a romantic relationship is generally a positive thing, doing so on days when you are feeling especially stressed may not be beneficial.

    The study, led by Casey Totenhagen, a research scientist in the UA John & Doris Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, is featured in the journal's podcast series, Relationship Matters.

    Participants in the study included 164 couples, married and unmarried, whose relationships ranged in length from six months to 44 years.

  • CALS Receives $3M Grant for Sustainable Biorubber Production

    Yulex Corporation, an agricultural-based biomaterials company, will provide the University of Arizona a $3 million, five-year grant focused on breeding and agronomic development of the guayule plant, which holds great promise for the sustainable production of biorubber for medical, consumer and industrial applications.

    Dennis Ray, a University Distinguished Professor in the School of Plant Sciences at the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a world-recognized guayule expert, will lead the effort to produce a higher yielding rubber crop and to substantially decrease guayule's harvest cycle time. Yulex and the UA will apply classical breeding along with modern tools for marker-assisted breeding to Guayule lines to select traits for the crop improvement program. Ray's research interests focus on evaluating new crops and products for cultivation and processing in arid environments.

    The UA has supported Phoenix-based Yulex since the company's inception. Yulex's first experimental crops were planted on the grounds of the campus, and the University substantially contributed to Yulex's agronomic development successes.

  • CALS Faculty Use Twitter to Get Students Focused In and Out of Class

    Forget the stereotype of the long-winded professor.

    At the University of Arizona, professors and instructors are embracing Twitter – with its famously brief 140-character posts – to connect with their students, engage them in discussions, foster new interactions and help them leverage social media for successful careers.

    "I like my students to really understand various social networking platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Pinterest and Twitter, and how to make the most of them," said Sudha Ram, Anheuser-Busch Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management Information Systems in the UA's Eller College of Management, who teaches classes on Web and social media, analytics and business intelligence.

    "I want to show them that even having just 140 characters to compose a tweet can be useful."

    Ram is one of a growing number of UA professors and instructors exploring how Twitter can help them enhance their classroom teaching. In Ram's case, it seemed logical to incorporate them into her classes since her own research includes several social media platforms.

    "If you want to understand the various social media platforms, the first thing you have to do is use them," she said.

  • The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences: Challenges, Opportunities and Optimism in Changing Times

    Keeping pace with the complex and ever changing physical, economic and social environment surrounding agriculture today can seem overwhelming for many land-grant universities that are dealing with the effects of a global economic recession. Global economic expansion alongside changing technologies, policies and demographics place dramatic demands on agricultural science and education. Shane Burgess, Vice Provost and Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at the University of Arizona, believes in keeping his eyes on the future. In his strategic plan for the college he writes, "We have always known that we need to be where the world is going, not where it is today." But with hundreds of thousands of entities involved in the production and distribution of food and agricultural products, trying to predict where the world is going is more challenging than ever before.

    University of Arizona's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is ready and able to take on that challenge. Since its founding in 1885, U of A, like other land-grant universities, has had a powerful impact on the economy at both the state and national levels. Throughout the years, its contributions in academics, research and extensions (a channel for communicating new information to the marketplace) has made it an integral part of the regional community. While CALS strives to live up to its time-honored role of creating "new people and new knowledge for a new economy," current economic conditions have forced the college to reevaluate its strategy for accomplishing goals within new constraints.