April 2019
Celebrating faculty, staff, student research success

On March 29th, we joined together with the Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine to celebrate Mississippi State's outstanding faculty, staff, and student researchers during the annual research awards banquet at the Hunter Henry Center. It is a highlight of the year for me, and one that I look forward to every spring. This year, we honored Steve Demarais with the Ralph E. Powe Research Excellence Award, the university's highest honor for research achievement. Dr. Demarais is most deserving of this recognition, which is a memorial to Dr. Powe, an MSU alumnus and longtime research vice president.

We were pleased that President Mark Keenum and more than 200 honorees and guests could join us for this special event. Thanks very much to Carmen Kelly, Elizabeth Nicholson, and Lynn Taylor for putting it all together. Read more about Dr. Demarais and all of our award winners at https://www.msstate.edu/newsroom/article/2019/04/mississippi-state-celebrates-research-success-annual-banquet or take a look at the banquet program created by Heather Rowe in the Office of Public Affairs at http://www.research.msstate.edu/rresources/awards.php.

Applications sought for Academic Leadership Program
The Office of Research and Economic Development and the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President will be leading a newly restructured Academic Leadership Program in the upcoming 2019-2020 academic year for faculty who aspire to be administrators. This program has been very successful in the past, and many of its graduates have gone on to become outstanding leaders on our campus. The changes we are making to the program will make it even better and more effective. For additional information, please see https://www.research.msstate.edu/rresources/news.php?id=6197.

Kudos and congratulations
Every month, I look forward to sharing faculty and staff success stories with you, and here are a few that have crossed my desk recently:

* Congratulations to Raja Reddy, a research professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, who is Mississippi State's 2019 Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award winner. Read more at http://memo.msstate.edu/story.php?id=5012.

* Kudos to all who have worked so hard to gain a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Mississippi State and to those students who were inducted into this prestigious academic honor society last week. Read more at https://www.msstate.edu/newsroom/article/2019/04/phi-beta-kappa-society-installs-gamma-mississippi-chapter-msu.

* Congratulations to Darrin Dodds, the new head of the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. Read more at http://memo.msstate.edu/story.php?id=5008.

* Kudos to Vice President for Student Affairs Regina Hyatt for being elected a regional leader of NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. Read more at http://memo.msstate.edu/story.php?id=5010.

* Congratulations to Yang Zhao, an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, who has been awarded a $123,937 grant by the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association Foundation for his research proposal, "Evaluation of Welfare, Behavior, and Health as Affected by Growth Rate of Broiler Chickens."

* Kudos to Catherine Pierce, an associate professor in the Department of English, who has been awarded a $25,000 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Read more at http://memo.msstate.edu/story.php?id=4988.

* Congratulations to Rachel Allison, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, who has been awarded a $15,000 scholarship from the Federation Internationale de Football Association to study the atmosphere and community of women's soccer fans. Read more at http://memo.msstate.edu/story.php?id=4989.

* Kudos to Kathy Sherman-Morris, an associate professor in the Department of Geosciences and director of Geoscience Distance Learning Programs, who has been recognized both regionally and nationally by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association. She received the 2019 UPCEA Excellence in Teaching Award in March and the 2018 UPCEA South Region Continuing Education Faculty Award (Credit) last fall. Read more at https://upcea.edu/upcea-announces-2019-association-award-recipients and http://conferences.upcea.edu/SUPER18/South-awardsrecipients.html.

* Congratulations to all of this year's Diversity Award winners: Elizabeth Englebreston, Tyler Daniel, Karina Zelaya, and the Society for African American Studies. Read more at http://memo.msstate.edu/story.php?id=5014.

Final words
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this month's letter. Please feel free to contact me at dshaw@research.msstate.edu if you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns about any of our research and economic development activities or visit https://www.research.msstate.edu.