Five University of Georgia faculty will receive the
prestigious
D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in Public Service Oct. 2 in
Athens,
Ga.
The $5,000 annual awards recognize UGA College of
Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences faculty who excel in teaching,
research,
extension and international agriculture.
The 2000 winners are Michael Dirr, teaching; John Ruter,
research;
Steve L. Brown, extension; Eddie McGriff, county extension
programming;
and Manjeet Chinnan, international agriculture.
The CAES sponsors the annual lecture and awards in memory of
D.W. Brooks, founder and chairman emeritus of Gold Kist, Inc.,
and founder of Cotton States Mutual Insurance Companies. Brooks
was an advisor on agriculture and trade issues to seven U.S.
presidents.
William F. Kirk, group vice president of DuPont Biosolutions
Enterprise will deliver the 2000 D.W. Brooks Lecture, “The
21st Century — an Agricultural Odyssey,” before the awards
ceremony. The lecture is scheduled for 11 a.m. in Mahler
Auditorium
of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.
The Winners
Dirr, a horticulture professor, was
cited for his
encyclopedic
knowledge of woody ornamental plants. His text, Manual of
Woody Landscape Plants, is used in more than 90 percent of
landscape materials classes taught in the United States.
He is widely recognized as a preeminent expert in the
landscape
industry. He was instrumental in establishing the UGA Campus
Arboretum
and in preparing materials for the Walking Tour of Trees.
Ruter, a professor of horticulture and
a researcher at
the CAES Coastal Plain Experiment Station in Tifton, Ga., was
honored for his contribution to Georgia’s container and field
nursery industries. He developed a nursery crop production
research site which as become a design model for the
industry.
Ruter is a national leader in developing improved
fertilization
and irrigation strategies for the container nursery industry.
The importance of the research is magnified by environmental
concerns
about nutrient concentrations in runoff water. His research in
slow-release fertilizer formulations will save an estimated 30
million pounds of fertilizer use in Georgia alone.
Brown, an entomology professor and
extension
specialist, is
a widely recognized expert in the integrated management of pests
in peanuts and stored products. He was instrumental in finding
a solution to one of Georgia peanut producers most damaging
diseases
– tomato spotted wilt virus.
He developed the University of Georgia Spotted Wilt Risk
Index,
a planning tool that assesses the risk of peanut growers’
practices.
Using hundreds of on-farm observations, the index is refined each
year. Economic analysis of the risk index shows that it increased
growers’ net return per acre between $133 and $280 per acre in
1998.
McGriff was cited for his leadership
in one of the most
agriculturally
diverse counties in the Southeast. In 1999, farm income in
Decatur
County was more than $170 million, with an economic impact of
almost half a billion dollars.
His reputation reaches beyond the U.S. borders. He led peanut
tours in Australia and Argentina and has been consulted about
peanut production problems in those countries, as well as in
Mexico
and Azerbaijan. He was part of a team of agricultural agronomists
and economists to help during the North Korean famine.
Chinnan is a professor of food science
and technology,
and
biological and agricultural engineering. He is an internationally
recognized authority on processing, handling and storing peanuts,
cereal legumes, fruits and vegetables.
His leadership in networking with international scientists
in the Caribbean and Central America led to 10-year project with
post-harvest handling of peanuts. The group continues to develop
projects in Bulgaria, the Philippines and Ghana.
