Faculty and Staff Awards

Faculty and staff gathered for the annual awards celebration on June 7 at the Swanson Center of Effort Conference Hall. Congratulations to the 2021-22 award recipients. This year’s awards were sponsored by Nutrien Ag Solutions and Sakata Seeds. See more photos of the event.

Outstanding Faculty Award: Jaymie Noland, Animal Science 

Outstanding Staff Award: Lisa Wallravin, Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences 

Outstanding Lecturer Award: Erin Gorter, Agricultural Education and Communication 

Outstanding Mentor Award: Shohreh Niku, Wine and Viticulture / Food Science and Nutrition 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award:Bree Hugins, Food Science and Nutrition 

New Teaching Award: Tim Delbridge, Agribusiness 

Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award: Lauren Garner, Plant Sciences 

New Scholar Award: Seeta Sistla, Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences 

Sustained Excellence in Scholarship Award: Michael La Frano, Food Science and Nutrition 

Early Career Staff Award: Brian Larson, Animal Science 

Western Agricultural Economics Association Honors Agribusiness Professor 

Agribusiness Professor Lynn Hamilton was awarded the 2022 Western Agricultural Economics Association’s (WAEA) Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award for professors with more than 10 years of experience. She was honored at the WAEA annual conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico in late June.

Cal Poly University Oustanding Staff Award

Aaron Lazanoff, beef operations manager in the Animal Science Department, was awarded the university’s Outstanding Staff Award for 2021-22. Individuals selected for this recognition are nominated and chosen by their colleagues and peers. His peers recognized his recent efforts at Swanton Pacific Ranch and commended him on his sustainability efforts.

• “He and his team were the first responders during the devastating CZU Lightning Fire at Swanton Pacific in 2021, bringing all the livestock and horses to safety without the loss of a single animal. With the loss of most ranch infrastructure at Swanton Pacific Ranch, Aaron has helped to develop construction plans for fencing and water systems with an eye towards efficiency and productivity.”
• “Aaron has improved the grazing practices on our Cal Poly rangelands. Cal Poly’s pristine ranches are a showcase for others thanks to Aaron’s background and efforts in sustainable rangeland management. He has developed an extensive high intensity-short duration grazing plan that is responsible for Cal Poly’s rangelands being an example for other operations to follow.”

A formal presentation of the Outstanding Staff Award will be made at Fall Convocation on Monday, Sept. 12.

Food Science Professor Named Interim Dean of Graduate Education

Food Science Professor Amanda Lathrop was selected to serve as an administrative faculty fellow for Graduate Education and starting in June will serve as the interim dean through August 2023, or until the permanent dean appointment is made.

Lathrop joined the Food Science and Nutrition Department in 2009. She teaches Introduction to Food Science, Food Plant Sanitation, and Food Safety. Currently, her research interests include produce safety focused on leafy greens, citrus fruits, and the use of biofumigation for the control of food pathogens in agricultural soils. She is actively involved in a multidisciplinary project assisting underrepresented small farmers with on-farm food safety practices. During her time at Cal Poly, she has served as a thesis advisor to numerous graduate students and since 2019 has served as the Food Science graduate coordinator.

Stephanie Jung to Join Institute of Food Technologists Board…

Stephanie Jung, professor and head of the Food Science and Nutrition Department, was elected to serve on the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Board of Directors. Jung’s role on the board will begin in September. The IFT is an international, non-profit scientific society of professionals engaged in food science, food technology, and related areas in academia, government and industry. It has more than 17,000 members from more than 95 countries and serves as a forum for food science professionals and technologists to collaborate, learn, and contribute all with the goal of inspiring and transforming collective scientific knowledge into innovative solutions for the benefit of all people around the world.

Three-year Elephant Seal Study Underway

Cal Poly just completed the first season of a three-year elephant seal tagging study in partnership with The Marine Mammal Center at Vandenberg Space Force Base. This study is a collaboration between the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences and the College of Science and Mathematics, funded by the Department of Defense.

The project is led by assistant biology professor Heather Liwanag (Marine Science) and veterinarian Heather Harris (Animal Science) and includes several graduate and undergraduate students. The team successfully sedated and satellite tagged five healthy, robust weaned elephant seal pups and collected biological samples for ongoing disease studies. 

To learn more about the project and its impacts along the coast, click here.

Cal Poly Strawberry Center Featured in MyAgLife Podcast

Listen to Gerald Holmes, director of the Cal Poly Strawberry Center discuss the center’s trajectory and successes on the MyAgLife Podcast, which shares interviews with industry professionals and highlights of stories from West Coast Nut, Progressive Crop Consultant, and Organic Farmer. Listen to Holmes’ segment at 19:05-27:30 in the podcast.

Wine and Viticulture Professors Awarded Best Paper

Wine and Viticulture Associate Professors Federico Casassa and Jean Dodson Peterson (and their students) received the best paper award for their research published in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture. The research, led by Casassa, titled “Whole Cluster and Dried Stem Additions’ Effects on Chemical and Sensory Properties of Pinot noir Wines over Two Vintages” has been chosen as the best enology paper for 2021. The paper includes the findings from an experiment on Pinot noir from Edna Valley in San Luis Obispo, that was conducted in partnership with industry partner Chamisal Vineyards – making the findings relevant for the local wine industry and California at large.

Agribusiness Professor Addresses Inflation and Increased Food Costs

Ricky Volpe, associate professor in the Agribusiness Department, teaches classes on food retail and supply chain management focused on the grocery sector. Prior to joining Cal Poly in 2014, he worked as an economist at the USDA Economic Research Service in Washington, D.C. Volpe is interested in better understanding the impact that the food retail sector has on other industries such as transportation, construction and labor markets. He’s recently been published in several news articles related to inflation and increased food prices, including a recent story in the L.A. Times: https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-02-17/are-inflation-fears-justified-for-most-middle-class-households and a Q&A shared by the Ratio Institute: https://ratioinstitute.org/are-covid-19-and-climate-change-risks-or-opportunities-for-food-retail/.