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Stockbridge professor Sarah Berquist will travel to the Slow Flowers Summit conference in Seattle this summer, to capture diverse voices from the floral design and growing industries. The audio clips she collects will be edited for use in her redevelopment of a classic Stockbridge class: Retail Floral Design. The project demonstrates how the research appointments of Stockbridge faculty perpetually revitalize and renew the content of Stockbridge courses, placing students at the vanguard of new developments in the field.
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Stockbridge Director and Professor of Environmental and Soil Chemistry Baoshan Xing has been recognized by Research.com on two of their 2023 lists of Best Scientists in the U.S.
Dr. Xing is ranked at #15 in the U.S, and #25 in the world, for Best Scientists in Environmental Sciences. He is also recognized as one of the top 100 in the U.S. for Best Scientists in Chemistry.
Across nine UMass Amherst faculty recognized by Research.com, Xing earned the highest ranking.
Xing has been previously recognized by Clarivate as one of the Most Highly Cited Researchers in the World.
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Community Classroom of Hope (CCOH), a new residential permaculture garden program proposed by Stockbridge students Jo Fuchs and Hannah Gould, will be operationalized by the campus community in 2023.
The proposal submitted by Fuchs and Gould was awarded one of five Undergraduate Sustainability Research Awards for 2023.
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New collaborative research by Ashley Keiser demonstrates the role of soil carbon as a gatekeeper of the nitrogen mineralization and nitrification processes. During the decomposition of biomaterial into nutrients, nitrogen mineralization and nitrification processes make ammonium and nitrate available to plants across divergent ecosystems.
The study, published in Biogeochemistry Letters, was highlighted by the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network.
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Blues musician Taj Mahal '63 is quick to mention his college years at Stockbridge, every chance he gets. In a recent Relix magazine interview, Taj explains his ability to identify breeds of cattle, which comes from spending his younger years working on dairy farms, then choosing to majoring in animal husbandry at Stockbridge School of Agriculture. "There are two things that people are not going to do without," teases Mahal...
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The University of Massachusetts Amherst has recognized Stockbridge Plant and Soil Sciences major Julietta Mascitelli with a Rising Researcher Award. Mascitelli will graduate this May, having completed their own research project under the direct mentorship of Stockbridge professor and plant pathologist Elsa Petit.
Mascitelli feels ready to meet the future:
"I feel more confident that I have something I can contribute, and a stronger sense of belonging in the STEM field. I've developed a lot of technical skills from tools, processes, equipment, and software that was new to me. My project reinforced what lab skills I had gained from my classes."
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The UMass Amherst Spotlight Scholars initiative shines a light on faculty working for positive social change through research, scholarship, and creative activity. Learn more about the work of these leading minds.
Om Parkash Dhankher is a leader in plant biotechnology, working to address food safety and security challenges facing the world.
Dr. Dhankher was the first one to develop the transgenic plant based approach for arsenic phytoremediation by combining the expression of two bacterial genes.
Currently, his lab is involved in metabolic engineering of oil seed crops for increased oil yields for biofuels production and specialized biopolymers for industrial uses.
Dr. Dhankher's research has attracted over $10 million in international grants since he joined UMass in 2005.
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Stockbridge Director and Professor Baoshan Xing has made new and award-winning contributions to environmental science and soil chemistry.
His article on slowing the spread of anti-microbial genes in remediated soils will be the cover feature for the American Chemical Society's ACS Environmental AU journal.
A previous article, on the safety of engineered nanomaterials in the environment, was one of the most-read and most-cited papers of the past two years, and has won the 2023 Excellent Paper Award from Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology (CREST).
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A team of 8 Turfgrass Science and Management students escaped our New-England-in-February weather for a trip to Orlando, Florida, location of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) Annual Conference.
Their focus was the 28th annual Turf Bowl Competition, for which Stockbridge has been a standard bearer for many years, often placing in the top ten against collegiate teams from all around the country.
The annual conference of the GCSAA is national and draws upwards of 10,000 turf professionals, vendors, educators, students, and recent graduates with a focus on turf management for the golf industry.
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Stockbridge plant pathologist and soil scientist Elsa Petit was selected as a Fellow for the university's Public Engagement Project. The program facilitates connections between researchers, lawmakers in both in the U.S. Congress and Massachusetts State House, and journalists. Fellows receive a stipend and technical training in communicating scientific research to non-academic audiences.
Dr Petit will develop material for growers to adopt environmentally-friendly agricultural practices, and will communicate with legislators to create public policy that support growers.
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Cam Anderson, PhD candidate in Environmental Conservation, and recipient of the Future Leaders in Science Award, went to Washington DC to advocate in Congress for agricultural and climate policies that are based in peer-reviewed research.
After learning how to have effective meetings with busy congressional representatives, Anderson led their team's meeting with the office of Rep. Jim McGovern (D), who represents the second district of Massachusetts and the home of UMass Amherst.
"We discussed the importance of research in bringing us towards a safe, secure, and accessible food system," reports Anderson
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The Arboriculture program at Stockbridge School of Agriculture is actively partnering with PowerCorps Boston, a federally funded program to train under-employed adults for living-wage careers in the green industries and other growing fields.
The university’s Principles of Arboriculture course is now taught in-person at the Mt Ida campus over 14 weeks as part of the PowerCorps BOS workforce development program.
The hands-on learning focus, which is the historic specialty of the Stockbridge School of Agriculture has proven successful in providing the experiential learning style best suited for under-employed adults.
