Recent CALS Spotlights

  • Urban Gardening Classes Target Phoenix Homeless

    On a street corner in downtown Phoenix, dozens of people line the sidewalk – sitting together in clusters, walking the street with over-stuffed packs slung over their shoulders. It's a gathering spot for many of the area's homeless – just outside Maricopa County's Human Services Campus, a resource complex designed to help bring an end to homelessness in the Phoenix area.

    Inside the campus's locked gates, Ivan McCarthy rests a large backpack and a bulging black garbage bag against the chain-link fence and heads toward a garden, where he joins a group of about a dozen people who've come to learn about harvesting fresh vegetables.

    "Has anyone ever had Swiss chard?" asks Kelly Young, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension assistant agent in horticulture.

  • Rangeland Monitoring Program Receives U.S. Forest Service Award

    The Arizona Cooperative Extension Rangeland Monitoring Program has been recognized by the U.S. Forest Service with the National Rangeland Research and Development Award. The award was presented at the Society for Range Management annual meeting in Oklahoma City last week. Five College of Agriculture and Life Sciences faculty and staff were recognized for outstanding scientific achievement in the field of rangeland ecology and rangeland management - Del Despain and George Ruyle (both School of Natural Resources and the Environment), Kim McReynolds (Cochise County Cooperative Extension), Jim Sprinkle (Gila County Cooperative Extension) and Doug Tolleson (V Bar V Ranch).

    The award honors UA Rangeland Monitoring Program personnel for “working within their counties and across the state of Arizona to build collaboration and consensus to address resource management concerns. With the goal of education and outreach they utilize many avenues to provide outreach in neutral settings to address issues and concerns in local communities surrounding National Forests in Arizona.” They are “committed leaders cooperating with the Forest Service with the goal of positive movement towards ecological restoration.”

  • CALS Alum and Faculty Featured in "The Five Cs: A Century Later"

    Southern Arizona's economy was founded on the 5 Cs: Cattle, Cotton, Copper, Citrus and Climate. Now are these 'pillars' of Arizona's economy still viable 101 years after statehood? Are they still the state’s top money-makers? What has changed? CALS alumnus Ron Rayner (Agricultural Education, 1964) and John Marchello, professor of animal sciences, are featured in this half-hour special Arizona Public Media radio feature which looks at the past, present and future of the Five Cs, and includes interviews with ranchers, citrus and cotton farmers, climatologists, and mining advocates and opponents.

    Join AZPM news reporters as they explore the history and current condition of each of the Cs and where they may be headed in Arizona's second century. The program is produced and narrated by AZPM’s Mark Duggan, with production contributions from Fernanda Echavarri, Steve Shadley, and former AZPM news reporter, Robert Rappaport. Originally airing on February 8, you can still listen to the complete program – as well as some special web features – at the link below.

  • University of Arizona ranked #1 among US Universities and #4 among institutions worldwide for top-cited environmental science publications

     

    An article published recently in the peer-reviewed journal Science of the Total Environment found the University of Arizona to be the most productive university in the United States for top-cited publications pertaining to the field of “environmental science”—and the fourth most productive institution in this regard worldwide.

  • Tortoise Conservation No Shell Game

    Taylor Edwards’ research would crawl at a tortoise pace if it weren’t for modern science.

    Deciphering DNA is central to his work with desert tortoises, those charismatic reptiles whose lifespans—as long as 80 to 100 years—make simply observing their evolution and heredity all but impossible during a human’s lifetime.

    An assistant staff scientist with the University of Arizona Genetics Core (UAGC) and a doctoral candidate in the UA’s School of Natural Resources and Environment, Edwards and his collaborators have assembled a collection of more than 1,400 samples of tortoise DNA by drawing blood from the tortoise’s scaly forearms. He uses the rich genetic reservoir he has compiled to better understand how millions of years of evolution shaped what the desert tortoise is today and how to conserve it for tomorrow.

  • Germs Spread Fast at Work, Study Finds

    Anyone who has worked in an office knows what happens when a colleague comes to work sick – it isn't long before the hacking and sneezing starts to spread. New research from the University of Arizona shows how quickly those germs travel through an office environment when just one person comes to work sick.

    Completed just in time for flu season, the study finds that more than half of commonly touched surfaces in an office – like doorknobs, copy machine buttons, the office refrigerator – can become infected with a virus when a single person in the office is ill. Some of the likeliest germ hotpots include the coffee pot handle in the break room, telephones, desktops and tabletops.

    The study also revealed that simple interventions, such as hand washing and the use of hand sanitizer or wipes, can drastically reduce employees' risk of infection.

  • UA, Pima County Unite on Water-Energy Sustainability

    The University of Arizona and Pima County have signed a major agreement to establish Water and Energy Sustainable Technology, or WEST, Laboratories.

    Pima County Wastewater is constructing a new 23,000-square-foot building this summer for the laboratories. WEST aspires to be a world-renowned venue for research and development of water treatment technologies, contaminant monitoring tools and energy minimization and production.

    The WEST concept originated from the two co-directors: Ian Pepper of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, a pre-eminent scientist with expertise in microbial emerging contaminants, and Shane Snyder of the College of Engineering, an internationally known expert on emerging chemical contaminants.

  • UA Global Retailing Conference Announces 2013 Presenters

    The Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing has announced its 2013 lineup of presenters – including Macy's CEO Terry J. Lundgren and fashion designer Tory Burch. The presenters will focus on new ways that leading retail and fashion brands are engaging customers and encouraging advocacy.

    Among the speakers are senior executives from Bloomingdale’s, Clarins, Costco, Facebook, The Hudson’s Bay Company, Iconix Brands, SonyPlaystation and Walmart.

    The conference will be held April 11-12 at Loews Ventana Canyon in Tucson. The annual event serves as a forum and think tank for emerging ideas in a setting that fuses business and academia.

  • Lunar Greenhouse Outreach and Teaching Module Featured on TV, Radio

    After spending most of 2012 on the road – with a stop at the San Diego County Fair in June and an installation at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, beginning in July – the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center’s Lunar Greenhouse Outreach and Teaching Module returned to Tucson in January.  Since its return, this traveling educational program has continued to attract attention in the media.

    The module was profiled in a January 6 episode of “Arizona Highways Television.” College of Agriculture and Life Sciences students featured in the episode include Tyler Jensen, a microbiology major who maintains operations and grows plants in the module, and David Story and Polly Juang, graduate students working with Murat Kacira, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, on such projects as module communications and solar energy electrical panels.

  • Study Abroad: Mediterranean Diet and Health

    Would you like to spend part of your time this summer in Italy for a Nutritional Sciences Study Abroad program?  Donato Romagnolo, professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences in the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is pleased to offer students a 6-unit study abroad opportunity entitled “Mediterranean Diet and Health.” 

    The course will include classroom time in Tucson from May 13-May 22, followed by three weeks in Verona, Italy (UNESCO World Heritage site), May 26-June 16. The program is also open to non-UA students for 6 units of credit. The syllabus is science-based and includes a practicum on dish preparation with the instruction of Italian experts and site visits to food production plants (olive oil, pasta and Parmesan cheese) and some cultural sites (City, Opera, and more, Verona has plenty to offer and it is 30 min away from Venice).