College of Agriculture & Related Sci. Awarded $1.5M in USDA Grants.

The DSU College of Agriculture and Related Sciences has announced the recent awarding of about $1.5 million from USDA’s Capacity Building Grants (SBG)program.

These competitive awards will either create new or enhance existing programs in support of the land-grant mission, which integrates teaching, research and extension activities.

“USDA is a major partner of the land-grant university system nationally,” says Dr. Dyremple Marsh, dean of the College of Agriculture and Related Sciences. “The CBG funding will help DSU train students to become future food and agricultural scientific professionals that the nation will need.”

The CBG program also aims to strengthen partnerships among the 1890 institutions, other colleges and universities, USDA, and private industry; and to enhance the quality of land-grant programs at the 1890 institutions to more readily establish them as full partners in the U.S. food and agricultural sciences higher education system.

The grants were awarded for teaching, extension and research at DSU are as follows:

Teaching

• $599,993 awarded to Jung-lim Lee, assistant professor of human ecology, for his grant titled, Empowering the Next Generation of Food and Nutrition Scientists through  Genomics. This grant will fund the development of new curriculum that will teach genomics.
• $149,959 awarded jointly to Qian Jia, assistant professor of human ecology and Carol Giesecke, Didactic Program director and State FCS Extension Program Leader, for their grant titled, Developing a Coordinated Program in Dietetics at DSU. The funding will provide scholarships for students engaged in this discipline, assist in the implementation of a recruitment strategy for undergraduate students, and enable the exploration of practice opportunities necessary for the program.

Cooperative Extension

• $237,199 awarded to Andy Wetherill, Small Farm educator, for his grant titled, Expanding Agribusiness Opportunities to Underserved Urban Communities using Cooperative Extension Programs
• $249,974 awarded to Dennis McIntosh, State Aquaculture specialist, for his grant titled, Delaware State University Mobile Meat Processing Lab (Mmpl) Curriculum Development and Implementation.

Research

• $299,938 awarded to Stephen Lumor, assistant professor of human ecology, for his grant titled, Optimization Of Physicochemical and Sensory Properties Of Reduced-Cholesterol Butter and Cheese. The studies in this area will enhance the research capability of the Food Chemistry program, as the funds will enable the purchase of additional lab equipment and give student more hands-on experience.