Purdue Agriculture Research WORKS

PURDUE AGRICULTURE Purdue Agriculture Research WORKS Annual Statistical Report 2007-2008 Read the full report on the Web www.ag.purdue.edu/arp/stat_report_07-08 1 Purdue Agriculture Research WORKS 2007-2008 Annual Report I introduced the Purdue Agricultural Research Programs annual report last year by noting the issues related to the food versus fuel debates, food riots in many parts of the world, skyrocketing food and gasoline prices, etc. A year later, the conversation in our state and in our nation has changed significantly. Now it revolves around issues such as the economic meltdown, the credit crunch, decreasing commodity prices, healthy eating and healthy living, and environmental sustainability. These changes in the conversation reflect the public’s short attention span in the “globalized” environment. Luckily, our faculty and staff bring a level of stability in addressing the myriad issues that might be regarded as important today, but be totally out of the public’s eye tomorrow. While we can and do react to crises, we take a longer, proactive view on most issues. The latter, proactive view anticipates potential crises and addresses them with cutting-edge research and educational programs before they become the crisis du jour. Our faculty and staff, along with students, participate in a continuum of integrated, trans-disciplinary efforts from the fundamental to the integrative and adaptive to the disseminative. They address global societal challenges in energy, health, environmental sustainability, and safe, secure, economically sustainable and profitable food systems. Yet again, this past year has been an extremely successful one for Purdue Agricultural Research Programs—as this compendium of information on Purdue Agriculture’s organized research efforts and outcomes demonstrates. I hope that you find the information useful. Sonny Ramaswamy Director of Agricultural Research Programs Associate Dean of Agriculture PURDUE AGRICULTURE 2 Contents Features Rabi Mohtar: Model citizen of the world . 4-5 Phil Nelson: Purdue’s World Food Prize recipient the first in food science . 6 Media turn to Purdue for expertise . 6 Purdue pair shares in Nobel Peace Prize . 7 What’s black and gold and read all over? . 8-9 Beck Ag Center sprouts on Indiana prairie . 9 Biochem leader to focus on undergrads . 10 Poplars to clean up environmental waste . 10 Detecting cellular clues for cancer . 11 The buzz about biofuels. 11 Destruction and renewal . 12-13 Web site links producers to consumers and new market opportunities . 13 Gene guards grain-producing grasses . 14 Tough turf . 14 Financial Awards Summary Statistics Expenditures . 16 Expenditures Chart . 17 Federal Formula Projects Summary . 18 Federal Formula Projects . 19-28 Award Amounts Departments . 30 Non-Academic Units . 31 Federal Grants Federal Competitive Awards Summary . 33 Federal Competitive Awards . 34-38 Non-Federal Grants, Contracts, and Support Corporations, Foundations, and Individuals . 40-45 State and Other Agencies . 46-49 Faculty Activities Faculty Expertise . 51-59 Faculty Honors . 61-64 Journals . 66-69 Faculty Publications . .71-109 Sponsored Programs . .111-128 3 Features Rabi Mohtar: Model citizen of the world By Doug Main “Like my grandmother told me, ‘If somebody does something bad to you, put it behind you. If somebody has done something good, put it in front of you,’” says Rabi Mohtar. The saying, one of his grandmother Gharra’s favorites, speaks to an optimism and generosity of spirit that is practically palpable upon meeting Mohtar, who is this year’s recipient of Purdue’s Agricultural Research Award. The annual honor is bestowed by Purdue Agriculture to recognize a scientist who has done excellent research and made contributions toward agriculture, conservation of natural resources, and people’s quality of life. Mohtar is not only a “world leader in soil and water science,” according to USDA scientist Mark Nearing, but also is a highly Photo by Tom Campbell regarded teacher, an accomplished tango dancer, and a Rabi Mohtar’s research in water and soil science has earned him the prestigious Purdue Agriculture dedicated family man to wife, Samia, and son, Jad, born in 2006. Research Award for 2008. Mohtar receives a $1,500 honorarium and $10,000 to further his research. Born and raised in a modest household in Beirut, Lebanon, degree in agricultural engineering, President Kerr — a widely Mohtar knew he would have to work hard to achieve his dream of a respected Beirut-born American educator — was shot dead while good education. College wasn’t an option without financial help, so he walking to his campus office. The assassination shocked and saddened applied for and won a competitive scholarship that allowed him to the student body, especially Mohtar, who personally knew Kerr and his attend American University of Beirut. commitment to Lebanon, to teaching, and to working toward When Mohtar arrived, the university had no student government. His overcoming bias and ignorance. solution: He set up the first student council and was appointed the first One gets the sense, however, that Mohtar is unlikely to share such student representative to the university’s president, Malcolm Kerr. stories unless pressed. In listening to Mohtar recount past hardships, it Some problems were beyond his control, however, as Lebanon becomes clear that for him, the most dramatic aspect of such trying remained embroiled in a brutal civil war throughout his college career. experiences is not the danger he was in, or the fear that he must have “Ninety percent of the time we paid attention to our studies and did our felt; it is, rather, the positive lesson he has invariably taken away. own thing, but we were always aware of the war,” he says. His students attest that Mohtar has a natural gift for teaching. He It was hard not to be. Due to intermittent violence, Mohtar sometimes takes time to ensure that everybody understands the concepts and the spent the night in friends’ dormitories instead of going home. He importance of the material covered. learned to be prepared, though, and this inconvenience became routine. “He encourages us to take a deeper look at the subject and not be And yet, nothing — not his relentless focus on his studies and his satisfied with the quick and easy answer,” says graduate student Joe extracurricular activities or his dedication to friends and family — Mallory. Mohtar also keeps class interesting by discussing the could serve as preparation for the senseless violence nor prevent it real-world impact of subjects covered. “In learning about dam designs, from hitting disturbingly close to home. we spent an entire lecture discussing the levees around New Orleans One afternoon, Mohtar visited a friend’s dormitory, surprised — but not and what caused them to fail during Hurricane Katrina,” Mallory recalls. at first concerned — that no students were walking about. A man’s Mohtar has had a lot of practice teaching, having mentored 15 loud voice jarred him into reality, telling him to take cover because doctoral and master’s students and more than 100 undergraduates nearby buildings were being shelled. It took him a moment to locate since his arrival at Purdue in 1996. But long before donning gold and the speaker, a security guard crouched beneath a desk. Mohtar quickly black or winning his department’s teaching award a decade later, he retreated to a nearby basement and, as if on cue, the shelling resumed. had a few good teachers of his own. Though Mohtar survived this and other trials, not everybody had such On weekend visits to the family farm in the mountains outside Beirut, luck. In early 1984, a year before Mohtar completed his master’s Mohtar’s father, Hassan, and grandmother, Gharra, would lead him Continued on next page 4 Continued from previous page around to teach him about the olives, grapes, figs and other plants “As anyone who has written computer programs and models can they grew. It was there that he learned to love the outdoors and began attest, it takes almost as much time to make a model accurate as it to long to know more about the intricate patchwork that made up the does to make it usable to those unfamiliar with its development,” says farm: the plants and animals, the soil and water, the people and how departmental colleague and professor Don Jones. “At present, GRASIM they interacted with it all. To Mohtar’s family, the land was sacred; is used by researchers, farmers, advisers and county educators across besides providing them with food, income and shelter, it was their home. the U.S. and in several foreign countries.” After Mohtar completed his master’s degree in 1985 at Beirut, he Mohtar also developed a model that uses a unique paradigm to better returned to the countryside for his first job managing a large family understand the flow of water, nutrients and contaminants across farm in eastern Lebanon. In charge of irrigation, fertilization and different spatial scales, a model expected to significantly influence cultivation, Mohtar oversaw 50 to 250 workers and learned a lot more future scientific and agricultural policy, Jones says. about production agriculture. Mohtar’s various international efforts are geared toward the conserva- One difficulty was managing plants at different altitudes, as the farm tion of environmental and natural resources and toward promoting stretched from 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) to sea level. “You start with sustainable activities. He currently leads an effort to establish an walnuts and apples on the tops of the mountain, go down to peaches environmental research center in Qatar, has done extensive work with and pears, then down to olives, and all the way down to oranges and water conservation in Tunisia, and has led major water and natural bananas.” resources initiatives in India, Jordan, France, and the Palestinian But Mohtar still desired further education, so after a couple years he regions of Gaza and the West Bank.

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