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OSU ag professorships to target high-profile crop issues
STILLWATER, Okla. – After nearly a year, separate gifts of $250,000 each given to Oklahoma State University to create two professorships is coming to head.
The OSU A&M Board of Regents recently approved the Dillon and Lois Hodges Professorship in Plant and Soil Science to Jeff Hattey, professor with OSU’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
Also, Bill Raun, Regents professor in DASNR’s department of plant and soil sciences, was named the Nutrients for Life Foundation Professor of Soil and Crop Nutrition.
“We are thrilled that these two new professorships were awarded to our faculty,” said David Porter, plant and soil sciences department head. “Dr. Raun and Dr. Hattey are world-class professors who will use these endowments to do great things for Oklahoma.”
The gift from OSU alumnus Helen J. Hodges and the combined gift from The Nutrients for Life Foundation, The Fertilizer Institute and the International Plant Nutrition Institute are to be matched dollar-for-dollar by T. Boone Pickens’ $100 million chair match commitment. Once the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education match those funds, each gift will provide $1 million of impact in endowed funds.
“The extra funds generated from these new professorships will provide much-needed resources to expand the capabilities of Dr. Raun and Dr. Hattey,” Porter said. “New and improved agricultural research products and services will be generated through work funded by these professorships that will directly benefit the agricultural industry here in Oklahoma and around the world.”
Raun’s professorship will allow exploration of linkages between fertilizer use and food nutritional quality. The team of three agricultural-based organizations is hoping the professorship will advance understanding about how nutrients can be managed to optimize the nutritional content of food while also supporting high yields needed for a sufficient and affordable food supply.
“This professorship will allow us to more fully extend the environmentally sensitive and cost-effective GreenSeeker sensing technology that was developed at OSU,” Raun said. “We currently have ongoing field projects in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Mexico where third-world farmers have realized increased production and profitability by using our nitrogen recommendations for cereal production.”
Hattey’s professorship will allow increased research on grain production. Acres of grain production in the state have drastically increased over the past few years. Crop production accounts for approximately 20 percent of Oklahoma’s $5.8 billion annual agriculture market value.
“It is a tremendous honor to represent the Dillon and Lois Hodges’ family through the professorship established by their daughter Helen,” Hattey said. “I feel a strong obligation to honor their life’s work by educating the next generation of Oklahoma State alumni in global agriculture production while protecting natural resources through enhanced research and extension activities.”
Hodges’ parents were both graduates of Oklahoma A&M, and farmed in Major County for more than 30 years, raising primarily cattle and wheat.
“We are truly thankful the donors have entrusted us with a great gift that is a permanent source of much-needed resources,” Porter said. “These new resources will be used to advance the cause of Oklahoma agriculture and bring cutting-edge science and technologies to agricultural producers globally.”
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REPORTER/MEDIA
CONTACT:
Sean Hubbard
Communications Specialist
Agricultural Communications Services
145 Agriculture North
Oklahoma State
University
Stillwater, OK 74078-0001
Phone: 405-744-4490
Fax: 405-744-5739
E-Mail: sean.hubbard@okstate.edu
Oklahoma State University, U. S. Department of Agriculture, State and Local governments cooperating; Oklahoma State University in compliance with Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Executive Order 11246 as amended, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and other federal and state laws and regulations, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, age, religion, disability, or status as a veteran in any of its policies, practices, or procedures, and is an equal opportunity employer.
