GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Ninety-five faculty, staff and graduate students from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) were honored at the 15th Annual Florida Agricultural Experiment Station Research Awards Ceremony on Tuesday evening.
The theme of the event was natural resources research, with videos highlighting the recently donated DeLuca Preserve and the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station; both are field sites that specialize in conserving natural resources for environmental and research purposes.
“Not only is the conservation of [the DeLuca Preserve] imperative to the future of Florida, but the research it will facilitate is unparalleled,” said UF/IFAS Dean for Research Robert Gilbert.
Gilbert presided over the ceremony, with special guests that included UF vice president for research David Norton and UF assistant vice president for research development Sobha Jaishankar.
One new award was debuted, which honored 13 faculty and 10 research administrators (RAs). The 2021 Large Grant Leadership Award was given to UF/IFAS researchers who received new, external research awards totaling more than $1 million in 2021.
UF/IFAS associate dean for research John Davis, who presented the award, said “These awardees are being recognized not only because of the dollar amount…but because team science leadership on an award of this size requires an enormous commitment of time, focused effort, and attention to detail.”
Each of the principal investigators on these million-dollar grants received a bronze Gator Trophy, and Davis said that he “expects the number of Gator Trophies displayed on faculty desks throughout the state to continue to grow each year.”
Awardees included:
- Liwei Gu with RA Connie Crawford
- Frank Mazzotti with RA Tammy King
- Renée Goodrich-Schneider with RA Meri Nantz
- Adegbola Adesogan with former RA Melissa Cecil
- Kelly Morgan with RA Tammy Siegel
- Kirsten Pelz-Stelinski with RA Tammy Siegel
- William Patterson with RA Sean Buchanan
- Jason Smith with RA Sean Buchanan
- Daniel Johnson with RA Sean Buchanan
- Julie Maupin-Furlow with RA Sean York
- Hardev Sandhu with RA Brooke Hinton
- Ziwen Yu with former RA Max Williams
- Christina Romagosa with RA Ben Kahler
The program for the event, a full list of awardees, and the videos debuted during the ceremony can be found at research.ifas.ufl.edu/events/awards-ceremony.
written by Mary Anne Sanders
0
