William Clapham William Clapham received his Ph.D. in Plant Science from the University of Massachusetts in 1981.  His graduate research focused on the reproductive biology of peppers and timing fruiting to market demand.  He conducted postdoctoral research on intensive management of small grains at the University of Maine.  He joined ARS at the lab in Orono, Maine in 1985.  Clapham served as Research Leader at the New England Plant, Soil and Water Lab from 1987 – 1997 and conducted research on rotational crops with potato.  During this period, his interest in marketing and product oriented research sharpened, and he developed the management system used to produce small red potatoes for popular frozen entrees.  In 1997 Dr. Clapham moved to Beaver, WV and assumed the post of Research Leader at the Appalachian Soil and Water Research Lab serving in this capacity until 2004.  Clapham reorganized and redirected the research program at the location and was successful in changing the lab’s name to the Appalachian Farming Systems Research Center.   During this period, Dr. Clapham’s research program shifted from row crops to perennial forage systems.  His interest in marketing continued to develop and resulted in the development of a multi-institutional regional project involving ARS, West Virginia University, Virginia Tech, University of Georgia, and Clemson University to develop pasture-based beef systems for Appalachia.  This is a systems project that ranges from cow/calf to steak on the table and endeavors to provide opportunity to Appalachian farmers to meet the growing demand for this product nationally.  Although Dr. Clapham was trained as a plant physiologist, he has a strong background in acoustics.  Dr. Clapham today is conducting research on the spectral analysis of sound waves of ingestive events during grazing and vocalizations of cattle.