Bumpers College Graduate Students Earn CAST Scholarships for Science Communication

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Bumpers College CAST Science Communication Scholarship recipients include (top, from left) Rebecca Bruce and Derrick Harrison; (bottom) Kathryn Haydon and Annagret Jannasch.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Ten graduate students from the U of A's Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences have earned scholarships from the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology.

All 10, including seven doctoral students and three master's degree students, are receiving the CAST Science Communication Scholarship.

The recipients are food science doctoral students Thadeus Beekman, Rebecca Bruce, Zephania Odek and Angela Tacinelli; plant science doctoral students Andrea Sierra Mejia and Kathryn Haydon; and agricultural, food and life science doctoral student Juanita Gil Bedoya.

Master's degree recipients are Annegret Jannasch and Pauline Morin in food science; and Derrick Harrison in crop, soil and environmental sciences.

The scholarship is to encourage students researching agriculture-related topics to engage with nonscientists through creative digital communication. All 10 submitted either a short video, podcast or infographic explaining a story about or an aspect of their research. See their submissions here.

The group will be recognized on Wednesday at the CAST annual meeting, which is in Fayetteville Tuesday and Wednesday at the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences.

The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, the science source for food, agricultural and environmental issues, assembles, intrerprets and communicates credible, balanced, science-based information to policymakers, the media, the private sector and the public. The council was established in 1972 as the result of a meeting sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council.

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. For more information about Bumpers College, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter at @BumpersCollege and Instagram at BumpersCollege.

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 2.7 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.