NDSU students Alan Peterson, Alex Wittenberg and Neil Olson received awards for their participation in the 30th annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Industrial Crops in London, Ontario, Canada, Sept. 23-26.
Peterson, a graduate student and research specialist from Bismarck, North Dakota, received a Travel Award and the Best Oral Presentation Award in the General Crops and Products Division for his presentation,“Maximizing Cover Crop Performance by Interseeding Cover Crops into Standing Soybean.”
Wittenberg, a graduate student from Valley City, North Dakota, received a Travel Award in the Oilseeds Division for his presentation, “Morphological Characteristics of Winter- and Summer-Biotypes of Camelina [Camelina Sativa(L.) Crantz].”
Peterson and Wittenberg are advised by Marisol Berti, professor and forages and biomass crop production project leader.
The association awards a travel grant to one student in each of five divisions. Eligible students must be conducting research with industrial crops and complete an application process. Recipients must give an oral presentation during the annual conference. The organization reimburses travel grant recipients up to $1,000 for their travel and lodging expenses to attend the conference.
Olson, a senior crop and weed sciences major from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, received the Best Poster Award in the General Crops Division for his poster, “Industrial Hemp Plant Population Effect on Crop Performance in North Dakota.” His poster presented research he was involved in as a plant sciences undergraduate summer research fellowship Intern. He interned with Burton Johnson, professor and sunflower, minor and new crop production project leader, in summer 2018. Olson’s academic advisor is Kirk Howatt, associate professor and annual weeds project leader.
Kutay Yilmaz, a graduate student from Turkey, also submitted a poster for the conference. His poster,“Seeding Date and Genotype Maturity Effect on Grain Sorghum Performance in North Dakota,” was displayed in the General Crops Division poster session. He is advised by Johnson.
Berti is editor-in-chief for the AAIC Industrial Crops and Products Division and the conference program abstract editor. She also gave the keynote presentation in the General Crops and Products Division technical session and presented a workshop on writing a peer-reviewed journal article.
Johnson serves as treasurer on the AAIC board of directors. He also presented in the General Crops and Products Division technical session.
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