2020 Recipients

News release: NDSU Agriculture communication - Dec. 11, 2020

Event recording

Program

Bingcan Chen
Department of Plant Sciences

Dr. Chen is an excellent young scientist with a terrific attitude and great enthusiasm for his research. He has built a strong, collaborative and multifaceted research program, as evidenced by his outstanding publication record, including 56 refereed journal articles in the past five years. He has also successfully supported his program and his graduate students by obtaining grants totaling over $1.8 million as PI and $2.65 million as Co-PI, including several highly competitive USDA (NIFA and specialty crop) grants. Dr. Chen was recently awarded the AOCS 2020 Young Scientist Research Award, a prestigious and highly competitive award that is voted on by a panel of national and international experts.

Thomas DeSutter
School of Natural Resource Sciences (Soil Science)

Dr. DeSutter’s research career has involved a wide scope of topics and his publication record is extensive. He has secured $9.56 million in grants ($2.15 million as his portion) and published 109 peer reviewed journal articles, including publications in some of his discipline’s most prestigious journals. His contributions have been significant at the regional, national and international level based on the many citations by others to his publications. Dr. DeSutter’s research has greatly improved the livelihood of North Dakotans, including homesteaded families whose lives have been gravely affected by their lands’ depletion. He has made deep personal connections while working closely with these people to bring their land back to productivity.

Todd West
Department of Plant Sciences

Dr. West does an extraordinary job of using innovative teaching techniques to enhance students’ educational experiences as well as providing excellent teaching and advising. He brings energy and innovation to the classroom. He has a demonstrated and steady mastery of course material with consistent updates to course content, and has a strong teaching philosophy that reflects a willingness to challenge students while treating them fairly. His peer and student evaluations are strong and his student rating of instruction scores are exceptional. He has obtained grant funds to support his teaching, published work regarding his teaching methods, and engaged in scholarly activities to enhance teaching.

Deirdre Prischmann-Voldseth
School of Natural Resource Sciences (Entomology)

Dr. Prischmann-Voldseth is an outstanding candidate for this award. She has exceptional contributions to scholarly activities relating to teaching and, without question, contributes to the enhancement of teaching as a profession. She has a willingness to transform courses to better meet the needs of students, making lectures more active and engaging. Her labs are a mix of field study, scientific collection, and inquiry-based learning. She has an obvious mastery of entomology as a subject matter and a willingness to share knowledge with many different levels of students.

Harlene Hatterman-Valenti
Department of Plant Sciences

Dr. Hatterman-Valenti demonstrates an outstanding commitment to students through formal and informal advising, and service. She has a long history of effective, caring advising of undergraduate and graduate students. She clearly understands that advising is more than just assisting with what classes students should take, instead, it is also about providing opportunities and advice for careers and even non-academic personal issues. She also has demonstrated leadership as a faculty advisor for student organizations, is a mentor in the First Year Experience Program, and a member of the Learning Support Coalition. She is a known advising expert in her department and the go-to faculty member for others.

Anitha Chirumamilla
Cavalier County Extension

Dr. Chirumamilla exceeds the performance expectations for Extension agents. She has made a significant contribution to the identified needs of stakeholders in her region and has delivered important programming on soybean aphid insecticide resistance, herbicide mode of actions, invasive weeds, soil health, youth horticulture, and canola diseases such as clubroot. The breadth of her programming demonstrates her comfort with different disciplines. In addition, she has adopted multidisciplinary teaching methods to effectively teach her stakeholders. Dr. Chirumamilla has collaborated with others on a laboratory bioassay to test for pyrethroid resistance in soybean aphids. Her research led to impactful programming in many counties, a peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Economic Entomology, and a poster presentation at a professional conference in Canada. She has also collaborated on research and programming on clubroot which resulted in a survey for clubroot spread, the adoption of resistant canola varieties, a peer-reviewed publication, and an Extension bulletin that is currently being published.

Hans Kandel
Department of Plant Sciences

Dr. Kandel has built an exceptional program to address the educational needs of those who grow broadleaf crops in the state. His educational programs have been recognized for their excellence by his peers and his numerous extension publications are always up-to-date and in high demand by growers and field consultants. He is intricately involved in 10 different crop production guides and five crop variety trials. His body of work is partially responsible for the rapid expansion of soybean acreage and yields within North Dakota. In addition to his influential work in soybeans, his educational efforts in support of tile drainage have had a tremendous impact on the productivity and sustainability of many farms in eastern North Dakota. He also oversees graduate student research.

Jerry Fauske
School of Natural Resource Sciences (Entomology)

Dr. Fauske is an invaluable asset to North Dakota Agriculture and NDSU. He has given many invited talks, outreach presentations, and workshops, and is author or co-author on numerous publications. He provides photographs for presentations and publications, and is the curator of the ND State Insect Reference Collection. Dr. Fauske is an expert in identification of insect specimens, and has developed web pages that are useful tools for county extension agents, farmers, and other professionals. He has worked with the ND Department of Agriculture, the ND National Guard, and other conservation groups to conduct surveys for invasive and/or economically important insect species. He assists NDSU Extension entomology with pest surveys which screen for insects that may pose a threat to the agricultural industry. And, for nearly thirty years, he has taught undergraduate and graduate students about general entomology, insect taxonomy and morphology.

Darla Bakko
Department of Plant Pathology

Darla consistently performs her administrative assistant/office manager duties with professionalism and competence. She has an incredible work ethic, strives to learn and improve herself and is an excellent ambassador for the department, NDSU Agriculture and NDSU as an institution. She is technically savvy and possesses extraordinary interpersonal skills. She is involved with and promotes professional development as part of an administrative professionals organization at the local, state and national level.

Cora Crane
Department of Plant Sciences

Cora assists the departments of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology with grant submission, and manages awards, budgets and compliance. In the past two years, she has helped her group of nearly 60 faculty in very diverse agricultural disciplines as well as Extension submit over 400 grant proposals to over 50 different sponsors, each with their own set of guidelines. Her department boasts one of the highest funding success rates within NDSU with 63% of the overall grant funding for AES and Extension. Her attention to detail and accuracy, sound judgement, organization, and knowledge is key to this funding success rate. Sponsored Programs commends her work as outstanding with a very low error rate and acknowledges her diligent and competent work as instrumental in the procurement of over $27 million in two years. She helped Sponsored Programs with the new online grant system and has been training faculty. Cora is a very positive force for her department, for NDSU, and for the state of North Dakota.