Bumpers College Horticulture Students Earn 10 Awards at ASHS Meeting

Photo by Lacey Howard

Bumpers College horticulture students who participated in the conference include (front, from left) Mallory Martin, Olivia Caillouet, Kenneth Buck and Morgan Gramlich; and (back) Joseph Chidiac, Blake Hawkins, Preston Smith and Jack McCoy.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Eight horticulture students from the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas recently earned 10 competition awards at the American Society for Horticulture Science meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

Bumpers College students combined for four first, five second and one third-place finish in individual and team competition at the Southern Region of the ASHS.   

Kenneth Buck, Jack McCoy and Olivia Caillouet presented and earned individual competition recognition.

Buck, who is also a member of the Honors College, placed first in the undergraduate research poster presentation contest, which included a report on his Southern SARE Young Scholar Enhancement science apprenticeship research project.

Caillouet, another honors student, won first place in the undergraduate research oral presentation competition, which included a report on her honors thesis.

McCoy was second in the undergraduate research oral presentation category.

Buck and Caillouet were mentored by Curt Rom, University Professor and associate dean for international education, with technical support from Jason McAfee. McCoy was mentored by University Professor John Clark.  

In the graduate student paper category, master's student Joseph Chidiac placed second.

The Horticulture Club judging team finished second in the team fruit and vegetable commodity judging contest, and third in the fruit and nut crops team category. Preston Smith, who was mentored by professor Michael Evans, placed second individually in both fruit and vegetable commodity judging, and fruit and nut crops judging.

Other team members include Buck, Blake Hawkins and Mallory Martin. Rom and assistant professor Garry McDonald are co-advisors.

Also participating in the competitions were Morgan Gramlich and Luke Freeman in horticulture, Bailey Smith in biological and agricultural engineering, and Khoa Thai in industrial engineering.

The department also produced three winning publications in the extension communication awards category.

Rom, Heather Friedrich, Freeman, McCoy, Debby Wechsler, Bettina Lehovec and Judy Howard with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture won best single publication for the e-book Success in the Field: Accomplishments of Phase II of the National Strawberry Initiative 2014-2015.

James Robbins and John Hopkins with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, and Mengmeng Gu and Mike Merchant with Texas A&M Agrilife won best newspaper fact sheet with Crape Myrtle Bark Scale, A New Exotic Pest.

Robbins won the best computer programs entry for Hort Plants v2 IOS app.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.