Texas A&M AgriLife Research Quarterly Agency Update • December 2024 | |
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Howdy,
2024 has been a great year for Texas A&M AgriLife Research! We have a lot to celebrate as we close the year, and I hope you will all take time to enjoy with family and friends. If you are traveling, please travel safely. We look forward to seeing you all at the start of the new year.
We closed out 2024 with research expenditures of $319 million – a 12% increase over $285 million in 2023. This is a 41% increase over $225 million in 2021. It’s hard to imagine that our research enterprise has grown by over 40% in just three years. This growth, a result of multiple factors, is primarily an indication of the exceptional faculty and staff who conduct leading edge research and innovation here. Your work changes lives and supports livelihoods through abundant, affordable, and high-quality food and agricultural products in Texas and around the world. Thank you all for your excellent work!
Join us at AgriLife Connect: Trust and Strengthening Our Commitment to Serve
I hope to see you all at AgriLife Connect on Jan. 8. The focus of Texas A&M AgriLife’s annual conference this year is “Trust.” Our keynote speaker, David Horsager will share "Trust Matters More than Ever: The Trust Building Tools You Didn't Know You Needed." Horsager will discuss trust as the most critical and endangered resource in today’s world. Like water to a plant, he says, without trust, cultures deteriorate, productivity fades, and impact is lost. While many recognize this growing trust deficit, few know how to rebuild it.
If you cannot attend in person, be sure to connect virtually. I will also give an update during AgriLife Connect, which highlights how implementing our strategic plan continues to strengthen AgriLife Research’s commitment to serve in several key areas:
- Continuing investments in faculty and staff recruitment and retention.
- Building faculty support programs and initiatives to secure extramural funding and advance scholarship.
- Improving research infrastructure and access to state-of-the-art equipment, facilities, instrumentation, and services.
- Training of next-generation scientists, including graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.
Legislative update
The Texas legislative session will be picking up steam in early 2025. As you are all aware, our focus this year is garnering support for ‘Intelligent Agricultural Systems’. Research in agriculture and natural resources must invest aggressively in adoption of new technologies that rapidly advance science. Better tools are critical to meeting increased demands of our food and fiber systems in the coming years.
Construction update
AgriLife Research has initiated multiple construction projects, now at various stages of completion.
- The Animal Reproductive Biotechnology Center at Texas A&M RELLIS campus is scheduled to be complete by early 2025.
- The Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center relocation from Amarillo to Canyon remains on schedule for completion by fall of 2025.
- The complex that houses the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Vernon and Foundation Seed is being rebuilt following damage from a tornado. It is scheduled for completion in summer of 2025.
- The Meat Science and Technology Center at Texas A&M RELLIS is in the initial phases of design with anticipated completion by spring of 2028.
- The Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Dallas’ greenhouse project is approved for design and will be complete in early 2026.
- The Texas A&M University System has initiated the design process for a research building in Fort Worth, expected for completion in 2028. AgriLife Research is already working to enhance research opportunities as the project grows.
- Texas A&M University has approved the initiation of a plan by the Poultry Science Department for a new research and teaching facility.
I am excited for what 2025 will bring, and I look forward to working with you all as we continue expanding our research mission into the future.
Gig ‘em!
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G. Cliff Lamb, Ph.D.
Director, Texas A&M AgriLife Research
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Research Director's Award winners named | |
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10 faculty and staff named AgriLife Research Director’s Awards recipients
Recipients of the AgriLife Research Director’s awards have made contributions that stand out among a long list of talented people who have made remarkable strides to advance our agency over the past year. They exemplify our mission to pioneer knowledge that nourishes health, strengthens communities, protects natural resources and supports economies. The winners will be recognized during a ceremony in January. Read more about each recipient, their roles, the units they support and their impacts in AgriLife Today next month:
- Technical Staff Support Award- Shay Simpson
- Research Scientist of the Year- Julie Howe, Ph.D.
- Infrastructure IT Staff Award- Justin Hager
- Administrative Staff Support Award- Dawn Miles
- Collaboration Award- Rio Grande Colonias USDA Regional Food Business Center
- William A. Dugas Early Career Award for Research Excellence- Kiran Gadhave, Ph.D., and Sapna Dass, Ph.D.
- Faculty Fellow Award- Weston Porter, Ph.D., and Asko Noormets, Ph.D.
- Senior Faculty Fellow- Thomas Welsh, Ph.D.
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Chandra, Cobalt St. Augustinegrass win Turfgrass Breeder’s Cup | |
Ambika Chandra, Ph.D., professor in the Texas A&M Department of Crop Sciences, an AgriLife Research turfgrass breeder and assistant director of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Dallas, received the 13th Turfgrass Breeder’s Cup from the Crop Science Society of America. She was awarded alongside her innovative St. Augustinegrass Cobalt.
The awards and the society’s annual conference were held in San Antionio in November. The Breeder’s Cup goes to the turfgrass breeder and the cultivar that, together, best exemplify originality in the development of a turf cultivar.
Cobalt, the product of 20 years of research, is the most drought-resistant St. Augustine variety on the market. It is suited for broad commercial and residential use and is a darker green and tolerant to shade compared with other St. Augustines.
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Three student teams place in 2024 Datathon Agritech Challenge | |
Three Texas A&M teams have been named winners of the 2024 Texas A&M Institute of Data Science’s Datathon AgriTech Challenge, sponsored by AgriLife Research. The contest challenges students to develop digital technologies to solve real-world problems. First through third place cash prizes are $400, $300, and $200 respectively.
- First place, team Lamassu, Cotton Field Detector. Members: Michael Bengil, Ryan Dempsey, Maxwell Vo.
- Second place, team Brigtado, Cotton Field Detector. Members Sejeong Moon and Uday Vysyaraju.
- Third place, team The Cooks, Crop Classification Using Segmentation and CNNs. Members: Jadon Lee, Abraham Lira, Alexander Bui.
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Multimedia available from the 2024 International Wheat Conference
Participants of the 2024 International Wheat Conference in September can now download multimedia coverage of the event including photos, videos, and recorded presentations.
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Hope for the citrus industry
AgriLife Research scientists switch from defense to offense to fight the U.S.’s most devastating citrus disease
| From 2008 to 2012, citrus greening spread to Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas and California. In Texas, it has spread to both residential and commercial groves over the years. To protect the economic and cultural impact of citrus, Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists led by Kranthi Mandadi, Ph.D., are seeking novel solutions to support the citrus industry. | | | |
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Breakthrough could revolutionize future of tick control
Research collaboration lays foundation for genetic tools to control cattle fever ticks
| A recently published study by Jason Tidwell, a part-time graduate student in the Texas A&M College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Department of Entomology and full-time microbiologist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service Cattle Fever Tick Research Unit at Edinburg, lays the foundation for potential new control methods against cattle fever ticks, the vectors of pathogens causing bovine babesiosis, historically known as Texas cattle fever. | | | |
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National research leaders converge at Texas A&M for USDA artificial intelligence forum
Researchers discuss agriculture, natural resources and life sciences AI applications
| Texas A&M AgriLife, the Texas A&M Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, and the science agencies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, co-hosted the 2024 Forum on AI Applications to USDA Science. A forum of leading researchers who use artificial intelligence in agricultural, natural resource management and life sciences converged on the Texas A&M University campus in Bryan-College Station to share knowledge about emerging uses, responsible advancement and administration of AI technologies in their fields. | | | |
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Research funding opportunities and project support
The Texas A&M AgriLife Office of Corporate Engagement and Research Support, CERS, assists research faculty in obtaining federal and private funding for comprehensive multidisciplinary research projects. CERS aims to alleviate administrative burdens associated with larger projects, allowing faculty more focus on research activities. Read more about CERS and sign up for the office’s Weekly Funding Opportunity Newsletter online.
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Follow Texas A&M AgriLife Research on social media | @txresearch | | | | |
