ARS Scientists Honored for Tech Transfer
Efforts
By Sharon Durham May
17, 2007
WASHINGTON, May 17Six individual and team awards were
presented today to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists for "Excellence in
Technology Transfer" by the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology
Transfer (FLC), a nationwide network
of more than 700 federal laboratories. The awards were made at the FLC's annual
meeting in Arlington, Texas. ARS is the chief intramural scientific research
agency of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
"Our scientists continue to demonstrate their ability to not only
solve significant problems facing American agriculture, but also to transfer
their research beyond the laboratory into the marketplace for the benefit of
farmers and consumers alike," said ARS Administrator
Edward
B. Knipling.
ARS research leader
Luis
Rodriguez and microbiologist
William
Golde, at the
Plum
Island Animal Disease Center in Greenport, N.Y., and Peter Gollobin,
president of MEDIpoint in Mineola,
N.Y., were recognized for their invention of a special lancet for drawing blood
from laboratory mice. It allows investigators to draw the blood with very
little pain to the animal.
Gillian
Eggleston, a chemist in the
ARS
Commodity Utilization Research Unit at the agency's
Southern
Regional Research Center in New Orleans, La., was cited for her work with
sugar factories in Louisiana to introduce two improved processes for
clarification of sugarcane juice. The technology has been adopted by all of the
sugar factories in Louisiana and Texas.
A team of ARS scientists based in Beltsville, Md., showed that the
broad-spectrum antibiotic tylosin can be safe and effective in controlling
American foulbrood disease of honey bees. The team included research leaders
Mark
F. Feldlaufer of the agency's
Chemicals
Affecting Insect Behavior Laboratory,
Jeffery
S. Pettis of the
Bee
Research Laboratory, ARS statistician
Matthew
Kramer, retired ARS chemist Jan P. Kochansky and Margaret Oeller of the
Food and Drug Administration's (FDA)
Center for Veterinary
Medicine. The team's technology transfer effort resulted in FDA approval
for the use of tylosin to control this devastating bacterial disease of honey
bees.
Ann
Donoghue, research leader of the
ARS
Poultry Production and Products Safety Research Unit in Fayetteville,
Ark.along with University of
Arkansas professors Billy Hargis, Dan Donoghue and Guermillo Tellez at the
Center of Excellence in Poultry
Science in Fayettevillediscovered, patented and licensed a technology
for testing and identifying potentially beneficial (probiotic) bacteria to
treat poultry to reduce human foodborne pathogens.
A multilaboratory team of scientists developed an enhancement of the
Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM) in response to users' requests. RZWQM2 is
a model of the root zone processes that influence water quality, soil water
storage, efficient water use and crop production. The team included
Lajpat R.
Ahuja, research leader, soil scientist
Liwang
Ma, hydraulic engineer
James C.
Ascough and agricultural engineer
Timothy
R. Green at the
ARS
Agricultural Systems Research Unit in Fort Collins, Colo.; engineer
Robert
W. Malone at the
ARS
Agricultural Land and Watershed Management Research Unit in Ames, Iowa; Ken
Rojas with the Natural Resources
Conservation Service in Fort Collins; and Saseendran Anapalli of
Colorado State University.
Milagros
P. Hojilla-Evangelista, a chemist in the
ARS
Plant Polymer Research Unit,
National
Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR) in Peoria, Ill.,
developed a soybean-flour-based foamed plywood adhesive that is being used
commercially by a major plywood manufacturer. The technology was made possible
by a Trust Agreement between the USDA, ARS and the
United Soybean Board, with the
board funding the study as an intermediary facilitating cooperative research
efforts between the NCAUR and industry collaborators.
Two other ARS employees received FLC awards today.
David
E. Swayne, director of the
ARS
Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Ga., received one of the
FLC's "Director of the Year" awards.
Donald A.
Nordlund was named FLC's "Laboratory Representative of the Year." He is the
technology transfer coordinator for ARS' South Atlantic and Mid-South
Areas.