03 May NDSU students honored by Gamma Sigma Delta
NDSU Department of Plant Sciences undergraduate and graduate students were recognized by the NDSU Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta during the organization’s second Faculty and Student Symposium and new member induction April 18. Prizes were awarded for first, second and third place in oral and poster presentation sessions.
Gamma Sigma Delta is the oldest and largest honor society of agriculture.
Cereal science master’s student Jane Snelling tied for first place with her oral presentation, “Vacuum Steam Pasteurization of Hard Red Spring Wheat.” She is advised by Senay Simsek, Bert L. D’Appolonia Cereal Science and Technology of Wheat Endowed Professor.
Plant sciences master’s student Jonathan Vollmer received third place for his oral presentation, ”Non-uniform stand reduction and stem cut-off in simulating hail damage on spring canola (Brassica napus L.).” He is advised by Mukhlesur Rahman, assistant professor and oilseed breeding project leader.
Wheat quality lab employee and animal sciences major Kaitlyn Peterson won first place in the undergraduate poster session for her poster, ”FODMAP Levels of HRS Wheat: Occurrence and Production During Bread Making.” She works in Simsek’s wheat quality project.
Plant sciences master’s student Swarup Podder received second place in the graduate poster session for his poster, “Chilling-Tolerant Forage Sorghum as a Potential Bioenergy Feedstock in North Central U.S.”
Other Department of Plant Sciences graduate students also gave oral presentations in the symposium:
· Patricia Cabas-Lühmann, “Water Uptake Affects Bleaching of Durum Wheat Kernels”
· Sergio Cabello-Leiva, “Cover Crops Decreases Initial Water Content, Sugarbeet Yield, and Residual N-NO3 in the Northern Great Plains”
· Ahasanul Hoque, “Genetic Diversity Analysis of a Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) Global Collection”
· Jayanta Roy, “Association Mapping Identifies Loci for Resistance to Sclerotinia Stem Rot Disease in a World Collection of Brassica napusL.”
· Serap Vatansever, ”Flavor Modification: A Novel Approach for Enhanced Organoleptic Property of Pea Flour”
· Puying Zheng, “Fine Mapping of a Heterotic Locus in Canola”
A new member induction ceremony was held during the symposium awards ceremony. Seventeen new members were inducted, including plant sciences master’s students Bryce Andersen, Felicity Merritt, Swarup Podder, Nicholas Steffl, Kutay Yilmaz, and Jinglun Zhang; plant sciences doctoral students Edoardo Poletti, Jayanta Roy, and Andrej Svyantek; and cereal science doctoral student Xiaoxi Qi.
Plant sciences professor Ed Deckard and student services director Brenda Deckard gave the keynote address, “Global Food Security: What Can We Do?”
Plant sciences faculty members Marisol Berti, Kirk Howatt, Mukhlesur Rahman and Anuradha Vegi serve as NDSU Gamma Sigma Delta officers. Rahman and Vegi organized the symposium and Rahman was elected president of the organization for 2019-20.
The NDSU Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta promotes and recognizes high achievements through research and service in the fields of agriculture, biology, botany, chemistry and zoology. Members are selected by invitation.
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