Banquet of the Governor's Conference on the Environment. According to the letter notifying Dr. Harold Benson, director of the Land Grant Program, of the award, "The Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Board applauds the outstanding work of the KSU Environmental Education Center and wishes to express its sincere appreciation of the hard work and dedication that you, your staff and volunteers demonstrate in not only providing excellent educational opportunities to connect students and faculty with nature but also conserving and protecting one of Kentucky's natural treasures."

KSU researcher Dr. Thomas Webster is one of 21 collaborators at 17 universities and federal laboratories across the United States studying solutions to widespread losses of honey bee colonies. Dr. Webster is focusing on a newly discovered bee pathogen responsible for much of the problem and is also involved in outreach activities with beekeepers in Kentucky and other states.

Dr. Kirk Pomper, Principal Investigator of Horticulture, and Ms. Sheri Crabtree, Co-Investigator of Horticulture, received the 2008 Shepard Award for the best research paper of the year published in the Journal of the American Pomological Society. Dr. Pomper and Ms. Crabtree received the award at the society's annual meeting. They share the award with colleagues at Clemson University and the University of Kentucky. Dr. Pomper has been a KSU researcher for 11 years and has authored 38 refereed journal articles, obtained over $2,400,000 in funding on competitive grants and taught biotechnology courses. Ms. Crabtree has been a KSU researcher for nine years, published over 20 articles and abstracts and has been interviewed by National Public Radio about pawpaw growing. Also in the spring issue of the Journal of the Kentucky Academy of Science, Dr. Pomper, Dr. Li Lu, Co-Investigator of Biotechnology, Jeremy Lowe and Sheri Crabtree, Co-Investigators of Horticulture, and Lauren Collins, former undergraduate student researcher, published "Clonality of Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) Patches in Kentucky." DNA fingerprinting was used to examine genetic relationships in native pawpaw patches in Kentucky.

Dr. George Antonious, Principal Investigator of the Water Quality/Environmental Toxicology Research published a new article, “Pungency in Capsicum chinense: Variation Among Countries of Origin” in the peer-reviewed Journal of Environmental Science and Health. Dr. Terry Berke of the Seminis Seed Co., Woodland, Calif., and Dr. Robert Jarret of the USDA/CRS, Griffin, Ga., are co-authors of the article. Dr. Antonious also recently participated in the 2009 annual meeting of the Florida Pesticide Residue Workshop and presented a research paper titled “Persistence of Bensulide Residues in Soil and Runoff Water from Agricultural Soil.” Researchers from around the world attended the pesticide annual meeting in Florida.

Dr. Robert Barney, Associate Research Director and Principal Investigator of Entomology published two articles: “Annotated List of the Leaf Beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) of Kentucky: Subfamily Galerucinae, Tribes Galerucini and Luperini” and “Annotated List of the Leaf Beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) of Kentucky: Subfamily Galerucinae, Tribe Alitcini” in the spring issue of the Journal of the Kentucky Academy of Science.

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