October 1, 2009

Field receives Purdue's Spirit of the Land-Grant Mission Award

The award honors the efforts to address public issues through research and Extension by an individual faculty member in the College of Agriculture, College of Consumer and Family Sciences or School of Veterinary Medicine.

Field is a Purdue Extension agricultural health and safety specialist and supervises the university's Breaking New Ground Outreach Program. The program provides assistance to farmers with physical disabilities. Field has been a Purdue faculty member 32 years.

"Dr. Field has demonstrated total devotion to farm safety improvements, making one of the more hazardous occupations safer for all," said Mark Hermodson, interim associate dean and director of Purdue Agricultural Research Programs. "His special attention to assisting farmers with various disabilities -- many of them farm-accident related -- has made him the world's expert in devising tools and other adaptations, which allow the individuals to continue to farm.

"In addition, his genuine empathy with the challenges that farmers with disabilities and their families face has led him to advocate strongly for social support programs. Thus, Dr. Field's program spans all of the education, research, and Extension aspects of the land-grant system in a truly integrated effort."

Field received the award during a ceremony in Pfendler Hall on Purdue's West Lafayette campus. The award included $10,000 from Purdue Agricultural Research Programs and the Purdue Cooperative Extension Service to support Field's overall research program, and a $1,500 honorarium from the Robert O. and Zelma C. Swaim Memorial Fund.

Field is the second winner of the Spirit of the Land-Grant Mission Award. Al Sutton, interim head of Purdue's Department of Animal Sciences, received the first award in 2008.

Writer: Elise Brown, 765-496-7481, brown222@purdue.edu

Sources: William Field, 765-494-1191, field@purdue.edu

Mark Hermodson, 765-494-8362, hermodson@purdue.edu

Ag Communications: (765) 494-8415;
Steve Leer, sleer@purdue.edu
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