Professor, seven students win top honors at research symposium

Seven students from the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences took top honors for their presentations of their research, and a researcher earned the highest faculty award given at the 1890 Association of Research Directors’ biannual symposium, held in April in Atlanta.

Kellogg Distinguished Professor Chyi Lyi (Kathleen) Liang, Ph.D., received the Morrison-Evans Outstanding Scientist Award, the organization’s oldest and highest honor given, for her excellence in research, teaching and outreach. Liang’s current research focuses on generating new knowledge and practices in sustainable agriculture and circular economy, including financial analysis.

Kathleen Liang, Ph.D.

“Dr. Liang fosters collaborations across institutions and provides leadership through grant-writing innovative outcome-based field experiments, public-private relations, and collaborative networks,” said Shirley Hymon-Parker, Ph.D., the college’s associate dean of research, who presented the award at the conference. “Her unique, interdisciplinary research expertise in food systems and sustainability has led to change and guided people to adopt results-driven strategies in problem solving with limited resources.”

In the college, Liang is the founder of the entrepreneurial education-based Dollar Enterprise program, and established the first entrepreneurship major in colleges of agriculture in the United States, Hymon-Parker said. She is a national and international leader in financial management, multifunctional and sustained agriculture, community entrepreneurship, networking and coalition building, science communication and policy analysis.

Since 2016, Liang has collaborated with more than 50 multidisciplinary scholars, served in leadership positions for more than 25 public-private collaborative entities, obtained more than $15.7 million for 19 integrated projects as principal or co-principal investigator; and published 22 refereed journal articles, 12 refereed abstracts, 8 refereed proceedings, said Hymon-Parker.

In addition, seven CAES students won awards for their poster and oral presentations. Those students were:

• Rycal Blount, a graduate student who won second place for her oral presentation in the food safety, nutrition and health category;
• Richmond Djorgbenoo, a graduate student who won first place for his oral presentation in the food safety, nutrition and health category;
• Joseph Richardson, an undergraduate student who won first place for his oral presentation in the animal health and production category;
• Victoria Tanoh, a graduate student who won third place for her oral presenation in the family, youth, community and economic development category;
• Ashlee George, a graduate student who won first place for her poster presentation in the category of plant products, health and production;
• Karimah Preston, an undergraduate student who won third place for her poster presentation in the category of renewable energy, natural resources, environment and climate change;
• Bahare Salehi, a graduate student who won first place for her poster presentation in the renewable energy, natural resources, environment and climate change category.

The Association of Research Directors is a federation of eighteen land-grant universities, including Tuskegee University, that coordinates research initiatives among member 1890 Institutions in cooperation with federal, state and private partners, including USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Joseph Richardson, receives the first place award as the top oral presenter during the 2022 Research Symposium of the Association of 1890 Research Directors.