Five U of A students from the Department of Horticulture and one from the Department of Food Science combined for seven awards at the recent 86th annual conference of the Southern Region of the American Society of Horticultural Sciences.

Two students earned first place awards and two earned second place honors.

Amanda Fleming in food science won the Norman F. Childers M.S. Graduate Student Paper competition, and Ryan Conklin won the individual fruit and nut judging category in the team judging contest.

Mataya Duncan placed second in the J.B. Edmond Undergraduate Student Paper contest, and River Dean was second in vegetable crop judging in the team competition.

Kenneth Buck came in third in the Norman F. Childers M.S. Graduate Student Paper division.

Duncan won an Undergraduate Poster Award, and Mason Chizk won a Graduate Student Poster Award.

At the same meeting, Renee Threlfall, a food science researcher, was recognized for winning the Julian Miller Sr. Distinguished Researcher Award. The award recognizes an outstanding record in research on one or more horticultural crops and in one or more areas of horticultural research for a period of 10 or more years.

Threlfall is a member of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences faculty. She is also a researcher and scientist with the Arkansas Agricultural Experimental Station, the research arm of the U of A System Division of Agriculture. Food science offers concentrations in food science, food technology, and food and culinary sciences.

The Department of Horticulture has four focus areas: sustainable horticulture, landscape and ornamentals, production (fruit, vegetables, ornamentals) and turfgrass science.

The conference was Feb. 10-13 in New Orleans. ASHS promotes and encourages national and international interest in scientific research and education in all branches of horticulture. The organization is made up of scientists, educators, students, landscape and turf managers, government, extension agents and industry professionals. Members focus on practices and problems in horticulture, such as breeding, propagation, production and management, harvesting, handling and storage, processing, marketing and use of horticultural plants and products.

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: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the top 3% of U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.