Recent CALS Spotlights

  • Recent CALS Alum Developing New Generation Technology

    Sarah Cook landed a job with a world-class company developing cutting-edge technology – all before graduating from the University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences/College of Engineering in May 2012.

    Cook, 29, who received a bachelor’s in Biosystems Engineering, is using skills she learned at UA to develop new generation harvesters for John Deere. As a hydraulics engineer in research and development, she is based in East Moline, Ill., and is teaming up with John Deere counterparts in Brazil.

    The hands-on experience she received at CALS and the College of Engineering prepared her for the professional world, Cook said. Her senior design project, in which she led a team of students in developing a portable aquaponics system, helped her to build leadership and teamwork skills that are critical in the workplace.

    “Everyone has to work together on the job, coordinating between departments," Cook said. “You are not just working in your own little bubble.”

    When Cook and her husband moved to Tucson, where she became a member of the 162nd Fighter Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard, she knew she wanted to further her education. Cook explored engineering programs at UA, and her choice was clear after meeting with Don Slack, professor of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering at CALS.

  • The Norton Trilogy

    Recently, major egg producer, Clint Hickman, returned my call to discuss Hickman's Eggs and the company’s mutually beneficial relationships with the state’s universities. He singled out the John and Doris Norton School for Family and Consumer Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Arizona. Clint discussed the Hickman family’s long relationship with UA and allowed that he has lectured to the school’s undergraduate students in the Norton School, touting the benefits of direct marketing in the retail food industry. Arnott Duncan and the Duncan Family Farms, a 2500-acre operation in Goodyear, likewise, have taken an assertive approach to public outreach and education about their role in the food industry. In a variety of formats and platforms Duncan has addressed topics like water conservation, cover crops, the creation of economically viable open space to help protect the west valley’s Luke Air Force Base, and giving back to the community via donations to food banks.

    Both Hickman’s and Duncan’s agribusiness enterprises, and their fundamental relationship to the retail food industry, have increasingly worked directly with our universities, in broadening the knowledge base in farm to fork programs. Their shared interests in working with UA’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, represent a continuity of awareness of one of Arizona’s premiere agricultural pioneer families that, for three generations, has played a major role in farming and ranching in the arid Southwest that provided foodstuffs for an increasing regional population. The family of John R. Norton III, whose name is affixed to the John and Doris Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences in UA’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, represents this important dimension in the history of irrigated agriculture and livestock raising.

  • Multi-Toxin Biotech Crops Not Silver Bullets, CALS Scientists Warn

    A strategy widely used to prevent pests from quickly adapting to crop-protecting toxins may fail in some cases unless better preventive actions are taken, suggests new research by University of Arizona entomologists published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    Corn and cotton have been genetically modified to produce pest-killing proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt for short. Compared with typical insecticide sprays, the Bt toxins produced by genetically engineered crops are much safer for people and the environment, explained Yves Carrière, a professor of entomology in the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences who led the study.

    Although Bt crops have helped to reduce insecticide sprays, boost crop yields and increase farmer profits, their benefits will be short-lived if pests adapt rapidly, said Bruce Tabashnik, a co-author of the study and head of the UA department of entomology. "Our goal is to understand how insects evolve resistance so we can develop and implement more sustainable, environmentally friendly pest management," he said. Tabashnik and Carrière are both members of the UA's BIO5 Institute.

  • Garden Kitchen Cooking

    Cinnamon is in the spice grinder, fresh garlic and purple onions sauté over a flame, and a spicy pot of chai tea simmers on the stove. Welcome to Saturday morning cooking class at the Garden Kitchen.

    Neighbors come together in the heart of South Tucson to tend the garden and learn to create healthful, inexpensive, and simply fabulous meals.

    The Garden Kitchen is a seed-to-table health education program that demonstrates how to grow, buy, store, and cook nutritious food. The kitchen, which opened in the fall of 2012, was created as a partnership among the University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, UA Pima County Cooperative Extension, the City of South Tucson, and Pima County.

  • Dead Forests Release Less Carbon Into Atmosphere Than Expected

    Massive tree die-offs release less carbon into the atmosphere than previously thought, new research led by the University of Arizona suggests.

    Across the world, trees are dying in increasing numbers, most likely in the wake of a climate changing toward drier and warmer conditions, scientists suspect. In western North America, outbreaks of mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae) have killed billions of trees from Mexico to Alaska over the last decade.

    Given that large forested areas play crucial roles in taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis and turning it into biomass, an important question is what happens to that stored carbon when large numbers of trees die.

  • UA-Developed App Warns Drivers of Dust Storm Danger

    Springtime is near, and with it the start of dust storm season in the southwestern United States.

    Arizona experiences some of the worst dust storms in the country during the spring and summer months, leading to poor visibility and potentially dangerous driving conditions on the state's highways.

    To help protect drivers from dust-related dangers on the road, the University of Arizona has created a mobile application for iPhones that provides dust storm alerts and safety tips.

    Available for free download on iTunes, the app uses a person's geographical location anywhere in the country to determine if there is danger of a dust storm, or any other type of storm, in the area. The warnings come directly from the WeatherBug service.

  • UA Dedicates New School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences

    The University of Arizona has established a new School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences that will bring together teaching, research and extension resources from across the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to focus on animal health, growth, nutrition and disease, and human health challenges facing Arizona and the global community.

    The UA Faculty Senate approved the creation of the new school on March 4, and it was formally dedicated during a ceremony last week.

    The school, which is being developed from the existing department of animal sciences and department of veterinary science and microbiology, will welcome its first undergraduate and graduate class in fall 2013.

  • UA Professor Receives Gates Foundation Funding for Healthy Growth Research

    The University of Arizona will receive funding through the Achieving Healthy Growth program within the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative. This initiative was launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to overcome persistent bottlenecks preventing the creation of new and better health solutions for the developing world.

    Sean Limesand, associate professor in the department of animal sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and member of the UA’s BIO5 Institute, will pursue a research project titled “Perinatal treatment of adrenergic dysregulation to correct skeletal muscle metabolism in intrauterine growth restricted infants.”

    The four-year grant, funded at more than $900,000, targets the fetal response to stress hormones in the womb that can damage the body’s normal growth and functioning.

  • Collegiate Cattle Growers and Livestock Judging

    Dan Kiesling serves as lecturer in the Department of Animal Sciences and has been a member of the department for more than two years. Kiesling’s responsibilities include teaching courses in livestock production, live animal and carcass evaluation, serving as an academic advisor and Livestock Judging Team coach. During his time in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Kiesling has started a course that teaches students the basics of livestock management regarding the four meat animal species and has worked with other faculty members to bring a teaching farm back to the animal sciences department so that students can have true hands-on experiences in the courses they take. Kiesling also advises the Collegiate Cattle Growers Association, a club that brings together students with an interest in the livestock industry, especially cattle.

    Kiesling always knew he would be involved in the livestock industry—even as a youth. He grew up in Michigan on a small family farm showing and raising sheep, hogs and steers and developed a strong interest in animal agriculture while participating in 4-H and FFA. He graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor’s degree in animal science and competed on both the intercollegiate meats and livestock judging teams. After working in the industry for a few years, he went back to school at Iowa State University to manage the sheep teaching farm and earned his master’s degree in animal science focusing on feedlot cattle nutrition.

  • Bob Collier and the William J. Parker Agricultural Research Center

    Bob Collier, professor of animal sciences, teaches Introduction to Dairy Science and Environmental Physiology of Domestic Animals. He also leads a summer training program in Large Dairy Herd Management which UA students can attend as a special problem course with 3 credits.

    His research program has always been focused in two general areas—the biology of lactation and environmental effects on the physiology and functional genomics of cattle. He is currently training two doctoral candidates and a third will be arriving this next year. The School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences is also planning in 2013-14 to host visiting graduate students from Spain and China who will spend six to nine months working in the laboratory to learn techniques.

    Collier grew up in a small farming community of 5,000 in south central Illinois, where his father and uncle owned a dairy farm. While working on the farm, he became interested in working with animals.