Bumpers College Students Win Awards at Agronomy, Soil and Environmental Sciences Meeting

Photo Submitted

Alyssa Ferri, an honors student and vice president of the Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Club, won first and third-place awards at the SASES meeting.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – U of A students in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences recently earned first, second and third-place honors at the Annual Meeting of Students of Agronomy, Soil and Environmental Sciences in Baltimore, Maryland, in November.

Alyssa Ferri produced and presented the video, "Colonization of Tomato Roots by the Soil Fungus Mortierella elongata," and won first place.

Jacob Maris presented "Evaluating Rice Straw as a Substitute for Barley Straw in Inhibiting Algal Growth in Farm Ponds" in the oral division and finished second.

Ferri placed third in the oral category with "Quantifying Populations of Native and Exotic Earthworms in Areas of Varying Management in Northwest Arkansas.

Srusti Maddala presented her research, "Quantifying Nitrogen Flux Using Microdialysis."

Ferri and Jordan Vansandt, respresenting the CSES Undergraduate Club, also presented a research poster, "Communicating Field Data from Applied Classroom Knowledge." The club partnered with Ozarks Water Watch to monitor water quality of Mullins Creek and produced fact sheets to share the data with the public.

All four are environmental, soil and water science majors in the Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences.

Ferri, a Bumpers College honors program mentor, is vice president of the club. Srusti Maddala is an honors student and a Bodenhamer Fellow. Maris is a 2015 Fellow of the Honors College. Vansandt is a member of the soil judging team which won the Region IV title this fall and will compete in the national finals in the spring.

SASES is an undergraduate student program of the Soil Science Society of America with the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America. SASES is an affiliation of agronomy, crops, soils, plant science, or environmental science clubs and undergraduate student members with an interest in one of those topics.

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.