News

Remember the first time you saw a cow up close or heard the baa of a sheep in person? Thousands of area kids will experience those firsts when West Virginia University’s Animal Sciences Farm hosts Kiddie Days April 25-27.

It’s an unseasonably warm February day in Morgantown, but a cool breeze is moving through a wooded valley tucked away in West Virginia University’s downtown area.

Lisa Orr's lifelong fascination with Appalachia's rural cemeteries began when she was just 11 years old during a visit with her family to the rolling hills of Preston County, where she attended the funeral of her great-grandmother. She was inspired so much that this topic became a life-long-learning pursuit, becoming the subject of her research in graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley and continuing at WVU, where she serves as assistant professor of landscape architecture.

James Thompson, professor of soil science, is one of six West Virginia University faculty members to be selected for the 2017 Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching.

On April 9-13, West Virginia University scholars will join other experts in the fields of mining and reclamation for a joint conference of three prominent organizations.

The West Virginia University Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design will welcome Larry Nielsen, professor of natural resources at North Carolina State University, as this year’s Davis-Michael Distinguished Lecturer.

The work of several West Virginia University researchers from the Davis College Division of Plant and Soil Sciences and Eberly College of Arts and Sciences was recently featured on the front cover of the Journal of Chemical Education. Their article, "Demonstrating the Effect of Surfactant on Water Retention of Waxy Leaf Surfaces," reports on their development of chemistry and biology lab curriculum. This curriculum development, led primarily by Kang Mo Ku, assistant professor of horticulture in the Davis College Division of Plant and Soil Sciences, and his graduate research assistant, Yu-Chun Chiu, is both inexpensive and accessible to undergraduate students, albeit not limited exclusively to them, as it is also accessible to middle school and high school students. The curriculum allows all students to gain hands-on learning experience while using technology with which they are quite familiar -- their own smartphones.

For more than half his life, Mannon Gallegly, West Virginia University professor emeritus of plant pathology, has been perfecting the tomato. In 1950, his research on vegetable diseases and tomato blight at WVU led him on a 13-year journey that culminated with the West Virginia ’63, also dubbed the “people’s tomato,” released in 1963 and rereleased in 2013 to help commemorate West Virginia’s 100th and 150th birthdays, respectively.

The West Virginia Bull Evaluation Program, commonly referred to as the Wardensville Bull Test, was introduced to this  West Virginia University farm in 1967. The evaluation center, sponsored by the West Virginia Cattlemen’s Association, West Virginia Department of Agriculture,  WVU Extension Service, and  WVU Division of Animal and Nutritional Sciences, is available to mid-size seedstock breeders and is designed to identify genetically superior bulls and increase profitability of commercial cattlemen in West Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic Region.

West Virginia University landscape architecture students and alumni will come together for an alumni charrette on March 1-2 to focus on creating a more vibrant landscape  for the city of Elkins. Their efforts will be centered on Railroad Avenue, including the gateway corridor and open spaces along the corridor in the historic railyard.