Purdue News

October 21, 1999 Extension specialists honored at annual conference Source: Floyd Branson, assistant director, Cooperative Extension Service, (765) 494-8490; Floyd_Branson@ces.purdue.edu WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Seven Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service specialists received awards for outstanding contributions to Indiana from the Purdue Cooperative Extension Specialist Association at the annual Extension conference Oct. 19-21. Purdue Extension is a cooperative effort among federal, county and state governments that makes research-based university expertise available in every Indiana county. Extension educators in the counties and specialists on campus work with youths and families, agricultural producers, civic leaders and businesses to address local issues. These programs include rural and urban land use, parenting classes, 4-H, economic development and environmental stewardship. • Jane Rossing Frankenberger, a water quality specialist with Purdue's Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, received PUCESA's Junior Award for her work helping Indiana residents better understand natural resource issues. Her education program has focused on three areas related to local water quality protection: drinking water quality, watershed management, and geographical information systems. She also has an active Extension program relating to agricultural drainage and initiated a new statewide program called "Safe Water for the Future" to help community leaders and individuals develop effective protection strategies for drinking water sources. Publications such as "Your Link to Water Quality" and "Watershed Connections" help make information on water quality issues accessible to all citizens. More than 1,100 people in high schools and community groups around the state have attended Frankenberger's "We All Live in a Watershed" program. Tens of thousands of people have learned about their own major watersheds through an interactive display she provided at the Indiana State Fair, the Indiana Farm Progress Show, the Land Care Expo, and other events. • Richard Latin, a vegetable disease specialist in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, was honored with PUCESA's Senior Award. Latin has earned a national and international reputation for his contributions to Extension and research in this area, and the high quality of his work has earned him the confidence of a large segment of the vegetable industry. Two programs are particularly significant and noteworthy. The first is his program on the detection and management of bacterial fruit blotch of watermelon and muskmelon, a disease previously unknown in the United States. His quick response and experimentation resulted in a disease-management protocol that has kept the disease from devastating Indiana's important melon industry. The second program is a computer-assisted, weather-based disease forecasting system for foliar diseases of melons called MELCAST. The data is updated daily during the growing season and is used by most of the melon growers in Indiana. This program has been so successful in Indiana that Latin has received grants to test the MELCAST model in other states. Latin also serves as Extension coordinator in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology. • Bill Field, who began a broad and wide-ranging Extension career in 1977 as a farm safety specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, received the PUCESA Career Award. Under his leadership, the Purdue Agricultural Safety Program has grown to become pre-eminent in the nation and a model for many states. His work also has led to the creation of the national AgrAbility program, the Breaking New Ground Resource Center at Purdue, and AgrAbility projects that serve thousands of farmers with disabilities each year in 18 states. Other examples of his leadership include effective farm safety programs for the Amish community and bringing a therapeutic riding program, CHAPS, to Purdue. The program not only provides a service to the community, but also provides tremendous opportunities for student volunteers. Field also was one of the first farm safety specialists to train emergency response personnel and firefighters about the hazards and skills involved in on-farm extrication and rescue work. • Dena Targ, human development specialist in the Department of Child Development and Family Studies, received the 1999 Special Award, which goes to an individual for leadership or support of a specific program. Targ specializes in issues affecting individuals and families in later life, such as the challenges facing grandparents raising grandchildren. From 1980 to 1997, the number of children living with their grandparent rose from 2.3 million to 4 million, and the number continues to rise. In response to this developing trend in family structure, Targ teamed up with Mary Brintnall-Peterson at the University of Wisconsin at Madison to produce a Jan. 12 videoconference, "Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: Implications for Professionals and Agencies." The videoconference reached about 3,200 family-serving professionals at 286 sites throughout the United States and Canada. Targ provided the lead in establishing content, which included core issues, current research, innovative projects from across the United States, panel discussions, on-site activities, prerecorded video segments, and real-time interactive discussions between conference presenters and viewers. In-state evaluations indicate that 75.6 percent of the viewing participants planned to access highlighted resources; 65.9 percent planned to expand services or programs for grandparents; and 18.3 percent planned to initiate a support group for grandparents raising grandchildren. Targ continues to work with state agencies on reaching the goals set in the teleconference. • The PUCESA team award went to the Post-Harvest Grain Quality Team for accomplishments in research, professional training and outreach. Because of the complexity of the issues, the team is multi-disciplinary, representing the Departments of Entomology, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and Botany and Plant Pathology. Linda Mason, Dirk Maier and Charles Woloshuk addressed a need for training and research on alternatives to traditional management tools used in the post-harvest management of grain. With input from the Grain Quality Liaison Committee, the team has designed control strategies that have resulted in considerable savings for many post-harvest industries. The team provides laboratory support for grain-quality testing, and it has had significant impact in Extension education. The publishing of the Post Harvest Pocket Guide, the Purdue Post Harvest IPM educator CD, and the S.L.A.M. brochure and poster, plus the organization of numerous field days, fumigation and grading schools, and farm tours, have resulted in training programs that have been adopted throughout the United States. The team also established a Post Harvest Education and Research Center at the Purdue Agronomy Research Center to expand Purdue's ability to conduct large-scale research projects and as a demonstration unit for post-harvest technologies. Writer: Chris Sigurdson, (765) 494-8415; e-mail, sig@aes.purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page