ARS Scientists To Receive Technology Transfer Awards Today

By Luis Pons
May 8, 2002

Eleven Agricultural Research Service scientists will be honored in Little Rock, Ark., today as winners of 2002 Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) Awards for Excellence in Technology Transfer.

The FLC was organized in 1974 and formally chartered by the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 to promote and strengthen technology transfer nationwide. Today, more than 700 major federal laboratories and centers, along with their parent departments and agencies, are FLC members.

During today's ceremony at the Arkansas Art Center and Museum in Little Rock, FLC awards will be presented to:

• Mark C. Jenkins, research leader, Parasite Biology, Epidemiology and Systematics Laboratory, Beltsville, Md. Jenkins' lab developed therapeutic methods for people and animals afflicted with cryptosporidiosis, a parasite disease for which there is no known effective drug treatment. Three biotechnology companies have been licensed to develop vaccines based on the research from Jenkins' lab.

Story about Devine's research.

• Thomas E. Devine, research geneticist, Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory, Beltsville, Md. Devine bred three forage soybean cultivars for use as livestock feed. The soybean plants grow twice as high as conventional soybeans and are adapted to different regions of the country. Devine obtained plant variety protection on the cultivars for ARS, and worked with the agency's Office of Technology Transfer in licensing rights to seed production and marketing.

Story about the catfish research.

• Supervisory geneticist William R. Wolters, research molecular biologist Geoffrey C. Waldbieser, and research geneticist Brian G. Bosworth, all in the Catfish Genetics Research Unit, Stoneville, Miss., and research geneticist Jeffrey T. Silverstein at the National Center for Cool and Cold Water Aquaculture Research, Kearneysville, W.Va. This team developed an improved catfish line that, because of increased feed consumption and faster growth, should reach market weight sooner than catfish currently used by the industry. Fish from the new line have been released to 35 commercial producers in the southeastern United States. ARS released the new line in cooperation with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

Story about Hunter & Kuykendall's research .

• Microbiologists William J. Hunter, Crops Research Laboratory, Fort Collins, Colo., and L. David Kuykendall, Molecular Plant Pathology Laboratory, Beltsville, Md. Hunter and Kuykendall developed a superior strain of bacteria used to inoculate soybeans. The new strain improves nitrogen fixation, crop yield and the amount of organic nitrogen left for succeeding crops. With the new inoculum, soybean yield increases have averaged about 2.2 bushels per acre.

Story about Rasmussen & Casey's research.

• Mark A. Rasmussen and Thomas Casey, microbiologists, National Animal Disease Center, Ames, Iowa. Rasmussen and Casey developed a light-based contamination imaging technology that determines meat carcass and product cleanliness. This system scans freshly processed meat without making contact and detects contamination on the carcasses with extremely high sensitivity. Jacob W. Petrich, a professor at Iowa State University's Department of Chemistry, is also receiving an award for this work.

Story about Shuman's research.

• Dennis Shuman, research electrical engineer, Postharvest and Bioregulation Research Unit, Gainesville, Fla. Shuman formed the EGPIC (Electronic Grain Probe Insect Counter) Working Group to further validate the performance of an insect infestation remote-detection system he developed for bulk-stored commodities. A company has now licensed the patented technology related to EGPIC.

ARS is the chief scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.