Antonio DiTommaso was promoted to associate professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. The goal of his program is to study basic biological/ecological principles governing agricultural weed population dynamics that ultimately lead to the development and implementation of safe, effective, sustainable, and economically viable weed management strategies.
Jill Freidmutter is the new assistant director of facility operations in CALS. She will establish and manage a centralized building coordination system in CALS that is expected to enhance the College’s ability to maintain buildings and implement small facility projects. Freidmutter will also be responsible for directing the CALS emergency preparedness efforts.
Peter Hobbs was recently re-appointed an adjunct international professor of agronomy in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. He has served as an agronomist in Nepal, Pakistan, Mexico, Bangladesh, and Thailand.
Quirine Ketterings was recently promoted to associate professor with indefinite tenure in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. Her nutrient management extension and research program focuses on whole farm nutrient management and planning, efficient use of inorganic and organic nutrients, improving soil testing methods, developing and implementing fertilizer guidelines for field crops, developing and testing indicators of environmental impacts of nutrient management practices, understanding relationships between nutrient management and product quality, advancing on-farm research through linking research and extension for effective programming and impact, and developing nutrient management software tools for advancing the sustainability of New York State agricultural production systems through comprehensive nutrient management planning.
Johannes Lehmann was recently promoted to associate professor with indefinite tenure in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. His research and teaching program seeks to advance understanding of biogeochemical processes in agroecosystems ranging from nutrient and organic matter dynamics in inorganic and organic pools of soil to nutrient pathways. In tropical agroecosystems, his work focuses on replenishing soil fertility and combating soil degradation as well as increasing carbon sequestration in soil for land use practices ranging from continuous cultivation, shifting cultivation, reduced-impact logging, and agroforestry systems to organic farming including the application of stable carbon compounds (slash-and-char).
Craig Meisner was recently re-appointed as an adjunct international associate professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. His scientific contributions to Cornell’s international programs in agronomy and crop science focus on implementing transgenic papaya programs, contributing to an arsenic consortium led by Cornell and Texas A&M Universities, and engaging resources to advance legume research to reduce risks to crop growth and quality. Meisner is currently contracted jointly with the International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC) and Cornell University and has worked with CGIAR centers and NARS scientists on sustainable cropping systems in south Asia for over 13 years.
Michael P. Riley was promoted to associate dean for alumni affairs, development, and communications. He served as director of development for CALS from 1997 to 2000 and had been assistant dean of alumni affairs, development, and communications since 2000. Key accomplishments under his leadership include the attainment of the Undergraduate Business Program campaign goal of $20 million, increasing the number of endowed chairs in CALS from 18 to 26, a yearlong centennial celebration, the redesign of the college's alumni magazine and website, and the restructuring of the CALS Advisory Council to better capitalize on its members' expertise and insight. Riley earned his B.S. degree in communication at Cornell in 1987. Read the news story.
Donald Rutz, professor of veterinary entomology, has been appointed director of Cornell's New York State Integrated Pest Management program. Rutz has been actively involved with IPM for over 25 years, having been a member of the NYS IPM program operating committee since its inception. Rutz's research and extension programming have focused on the development, implementation, and demonstration of integrated fly management programs for dairy cattle and poultry with an emphasis on the biological components. He joined Cornell's faculty in 1981. http://www.cce.cornell.edu/
The Division of Nutritional Science recently announced the promotion of three faculty members to full professor:
Rebecca Stoltzfus was promoted July 1. She is currently a co-investigator on two randomized trials of zinc and iron-folic acid supplementation and mortality in young children, one in Nepal and one in Zanzibar, Tanzania. She is an associate editor of the Journal of Nutrition, president of the Society for International Nutrition Research, and a member of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on General Parasitology and the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine.
Patrick Stover was promoted effective November 1. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1994 after completing postdoctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley. His work on folic acid metabolism in cancer cells and in pregnancy models in 1997 earned him the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers, a Presidential Early Career Award.
Jeffery Sobal was promoted effective November 1. A nutritional sociologist, he is co-editor of Interpreting Weight: The Social Management of Fatness and Thinness, Weighty Issues: Fatness and Thinness as Social Problems, and Eating Agendas: Food and Nutrition as Social Problems.
Olena Vatamaniuk was recently appointed an assistant professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. Her research focuses on mechanisms of heavy metal tolerance and detoxification in plant and animal systems and mechanisms of acquired resistance to their effects. Using three model systems, she seeks to identify those mechanisms that will be of importance to agricultural systems, for phytoremediation applications, for testing drugs against heavy metal toxicity, and for new chemotherapeutic approaches for preventing and/or treating heavy metal-promoted diseases. She received her doctorate degree in plant physiology from L’viv and Kyiv State University, Ukraine, focusing on protein synthesis and changes in endogenous hormones in root meristems of corn during cold stress. Prior to her appointment at Cornell, she served as a postdoctoral researcher and research associate in the Plant Science Institute, Department of Biology, at the University of Pennsylvania.