MAES News
August 2, 2004
- MAES Director Named MSU Research Vice President
- Northwest Station Celebrates 25th Anniversary in August
- Land Policy Program Announces 44 Grant Awards
- AIDS toll in African Heartland Isn’t Always What People Think
- MSU Receives Share of Michigan Technology Funding
- MSUE Director Honored by Cherry Industry
MAES Director Named MSU Research Vice President
J. Ian Gray, director of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES) and a veteran at guiding research at Michigan State University, is the university’s new vice president for research and graduate studies.
The appointment of Gray, who is also interim vice provost, was approved July 22, by the MSU Board of Trustees. Gray succeeds Robert Huggett, who had been vice president since 1997.
His appointment begins Sept. 1.
“Ian Gray has a long and distinguished record of guiding a great research program here at Michigan State,” said MSU President Peter McPherson. “His creativity and vision will continue to enable us to craft productive partnerships both on campus and across the world. His accomplishments as an administrator and as a scientist are impressive, and we are pleased he is with us to keep the tremendous momentum MSU’s research has.”
In his 17-year tenure in the MAES, which encompasses the work of more than 300 scientists in five colleges at MSU, Gray has been a driving force behind the expansion of interdisciplinary research, which now is a cornerstone of MSU’s vision to advance knowledge and transform lives through exploration and discovery.
“Ian Gray is a great choice to build MSU’s research portfolio,” said Lou Anna K. Simon, MSU president designate and provost. “He has a tremendous network of support, not only across the university, but nationally and internationally. Michigan State is a research-intensive university with a passion for advancing knowledge and transforming lives.
“Under Ian’s leadership, MSU will continue to confront some of the world’s most complex and perplexing problems. We’ll play a vital role in enhancing the quality of life for individuals and will continue to be a driver for the economic growth of our state and the region.”
Gray, 59, a food scientist expert in the formation of toxic compounds in foods as a result of processing and cooking, came to MSU in 1978 as an assistant professor of food science and human nutrition.
In 1987, he became acting assistant director, and a year later associate director of the MAES, which generates knowledge through strategic research to enhance agriculture, natural resources, families and communities in Michigan.
In that position, his primary responsibilities included managing the multi-state research program and developing and maintaining strong ties between MAES researchers and the state’s commodity groups. He promoted multidisciplinary efforts to address problems identified in state assessments of Michigan agriculture and natural resources. He also worked to facilitate special U.S. Department of Agriculture grants on fruit quality, sustainable agriculture, and potato breeding and quality.
Gray became MAES director in 1996 and assumed the additional duties of interim vice provost in 1998 and of assistant vice president for research and graduate studies in 2000. He has expanded the mission of MAES to include more research in the social science areas and helped bring the National Food Safety and Toxicology Center to MSU.
“Not only have we maintained our commitment to the traditional charge of serving the state, but the Agricultural Experiment Station has maintained a multidisciplinary approach that has engaged many faculty members that don’t have traditional links,” Gray said. “We’ve used the MAES to engage a major part of the university research machine, and that is very powerful.”
“Ian Gray’s 26 years of dedicated service to MSU as a research scientist and director of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station have prepared him well for this new role,” said Jeffrey Armstrong, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “He is an effective and strategic administrator who has aggressively expanded the MAES research agenda across campus, particularly in the social and behavioral sciences. I am very pleased that his vision and creativity will now help inform and shape the broader research mission of the university.”
Gray has been an active bench scientist with a body of research that contributes to safer, more healthful food and also assists in developing Michigan products. He lists 170 scientific journal publications and 120 papers presented at scientific meetings. His work includes such high-profile projects as MSU’s findings that show that tart cherries have healthful antioxidant properties.
Gray, a native of Northern Ireland, received his doctoral degree in food science from Queen’s University in Belfast, conducted post-doctoral research at MSU and was an assistant professor of food science at University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.
“It’s a wonderful honor to be appointed, and I look forward to the work of enhancing the research excellence at MSU and putting together a university-wide research agenda that will do justice to the research talents that exist at MSU,” Gray said. “I also look forward to working closely with Graduate School Dean Karen Klomparens to make graduate research and training an even more rewarding experience for students at MSU.”
Northwest
Station Celebrates 25th Anniversary in August 
Over the past 25 years, the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station has helped Michigan cherry growers maintain their position as the country’s top cherry-producers.
“We have developed a worldwide reputation for cherry research,” said Bill Klein, farm manager. “The northwest Michigan fruit industry looks to the station for research on integrated pest and crop management concepts.”
In 1978, a group of fruit growers from the counties of Manistee, Benzie, Leelanau, Grand Traverse and Antrim formed the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Foundation to establish a field research station in the area because other MSU research facilities did not represent the unique climate and soils of the state’s northwestern and west central growing areas.
After a fund-raising campaign, the foundation purchased an 80-acre farm near Bingham in Leelanau County in November 1978. By the next summer, an office and storage facility had been built on the site. An open house in September 1979 marked the official start of operation at the station. The MAES then leased the facility and property from the foundation.
“Cherry research is one of our top priorities,” Klein said. “The station pioneered efforts to disseminate real-time information during the growing season via fax and e-mail. This has helped growers minimize pesticide use and enhance profitability.”
Other research includes sweet and tart cherry variety and rootstock evaluations, management trials of sweet cherries on dwarfing rootstocks, orchard floor management trials, cherry nutrition studies, evaluation of new reduced-risk chemistries for insect and disease management, alternative fruit and nut crop evaluation, enhancing fruit quality, insect biology, trapping and pesticide alternatives.
During the 2004 National Cherry Festival in July, more than 1,700 people visited the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station in Traverse City, said Jim Nugent, station coordinator and MSUE district horticulture agent.
On Aug. 26, the station will open its doors to officially celebrate its 25th anniversary. Beginning at 3 p.m. with tours of the station and poster sessions by MAES researchers, the event includes a reception, dinner and a special anniversary program. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased by calling the station at 231-946-1510.
“The northwest station brings together a unique blend of MAES research and Extension programming combined with the active participation of the fruit industry and excellent support from MDA,” Nugent said. “This station puts the university at the focal point for information for both northwest Michigan's fruit industry and the tart cherry industry throughout Michigan, North America and the world. There is a great sense of pride and support from the fruit industry in the research and outreach activities conducted at the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station.”
Land Policy Program Announces 44 Grant Awards
The Michigan State University Land Policy Program announced 44 grant awards totaling $680,000 to researchers and outreach faculty members at MSU, Wayne State University and the University of Michigan for projects that protect land resources, encourage smart growth and revitalize urban centers.
Grant projects include measuring the success of brownfield redevelopment programs, creating and measuring success in municipalities participating in Gov. Granholm’s Cool Cities initiative, assessing the effectiveness of state property tax abatements, and training entrepreneurs to support reopening a farmers’ market to provide produce to a Detroit neighborhood with no grocery stores.
Other projects will assess demographic trends and infrastructure costs on urban sprawl, model the effects of aspen forest management practices on wildlife and habitat, and stimulate the development of a recreational trail network in the eastern Upper Peninsula.
“We want these grants to kick-start a vigorous multidisciplinary, statewide strategy to reward innovative research and effective outreach proposals that support the development and implementation of smart growth across the state and the Great Lakes region,” said Soji Adelaja, the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor in Land Policy and MAES-affiliated scientist, who heads the newly created Land Policy Program.
Grants range from $2,000 to $150,000. A review panel selected 44 projects for funding from 80 proposals in eight categories: rapid response, outreach and capacity building, program planning, program implementation, research and outreach equipment, special projects, graduate research scholars, and undergraduate research scholars.
The Land Policy Program was established to strengthen and expand MSU’s commitment to the use of science for addressing public policy and community needs. It provides university research and delivers statewide outreach on critical land use issues. The new program fosters collaborative relationships with university departments and other colleges and universities to create multidisciplinary teams to solve local, regional and statewide land use problems.
The Land Policy Program Grants Initiative was made possible through funding by the MSU Office of the Provost, the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Programs, the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, MSU Extension, the Department of Agricultural Economics and the Office of the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor in Land Policy.
To see a complete list of the grant awards, click here.
AIDS toll in African Heartland Isn’t Always What People Think
New ways to study the impact of HIV/AIDS on rural African families are showing that conventional wisdom isn’t necessarily wise and pointing to better ways to help those struggling in the wake of death.
A new method to gauge who is most likely dying from AIDS and what it means to rural families is painting a new picture of HIV/AIDS in the heartland of African countries most affected by this disease.
MAES researchers, with African counterparts, have devised new ways to understand which families’ livelihoods are most threatened after losing a family member to AIDS and how both families and communities can be helped.
The picture emerging is less about an annihilation of families than about a nuanced pattern of loss that cripples some families and leaves others with a better chance of enduring.
“We want to be more effective in helping, and we want fewer negative consequences of the assistance,” said Michael Weber, MAES agricultural economist. “Policies and mitigation programs can have a negative spillover on the rest of the households in these communities. We want to avoid rearranging the chairs on the Titanic as it’s going down. You want to target those who need the help in a way that helps them and doesn’t inhibit but stimulates growth for the rest.”
The research was presented at a preconference meeting of the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
The group is presenting ways to understand who is dying from HIV/AIDS-related illness in the agricultural countryside of severely affected countries of sub-Saharan Africa, where those infected are rarely tested and formally diagnosed. Weber and his colleagues at USAID and in-country governmental agencies have spent years amending surveys of rural populations in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Zambia to include questions about which, if any, family members have died, their age, their gender and their place in the household.
“We’re finding that, counter to conventional wisdom, there aren’t as many households completely disappearing,” Weber said. “The number of orphans isn’t as large as was thought. This is putting a more realistic balance on the magnitude of the problem.”
The research also reveals that in four of the five countries studied, a majority of the prior adult mortality was not among heads of households or spouses but among others, usually adult children.
What is crucial, the studies show, is not only about how many are dying of AIDS but who is dying. The worst-case scenario leaves a farming family headed by a widow.
A wife’s death is a tragedy for a family, but in Africa men have much better prospects of remarrying and recovering some of the lost labor to run the household and farm. A widow left to head a household not only faces bleak chances of remarrying, but African asset distribution often shuts women out, Weber said. In a place where possession is nine-tenths of the law, unfarmed land is likely to be lost.
A better understanding of the dynamics of family loss can both better shape aid and begin to give insights about improved tools for prevention, Weber said. Already indications are that agricultural policies focused exclusively on reducing labor demands for crops seem misguided. The impact of AIDS, the group has shown, is not always nor necessarily in the fields.
“We feel very strongly that it would be a serious mistake to put all of the agricultural research resources into labor-saving crops and technologies,” Weber said. “The most important thing from a labor-saving standpoint is not about agricultural production alone. It’s also in three critical things that women have to spend time on: carrying water, carrying firewood and preparing food. If you can reduce labor needed for these three things, that would make more sense, and it would benefit all families, not just those with deaths.”
The group also found the need to focus on aid that did not help families suffering a “death shock” at the expense of promoting growth for all poor families in these communities.
Weber’s paper, done with assistance from USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade, and the Africa Bureau, as well as with the help of many African counterparts, was presented at a preconference session. MSU is the only institution to have two papers accepted for the preconference session of this major world gathering of scientists and policy-makers.
Besides Weber, MSU faculty and graduate student authors from the department of agricultural economics, and economics, are David Mather, Cynthia Donovan, Thomas Jayne, Edward Mazhangara, Linda Bailey, Kyeongwon Koo, Takashi Yamano and Elliot Mghenyi. Copies of the papers being presented in Thailand and of other work in this area by the MSU group are available at: www.aec.msu.edu/agecon/fs2/papers/idwp82forreview.pdf.
MSU Receives Share of Michigan Technology Funding
Michigan State University will use some $3.7 million to explore ways to develop better pharmaceutical drugs and healthcare products, and bring them to market to help strengthen Michigan's economy.
Four MSU research teams, including one led by an MAES scientist, are among 22 applicants who will share about $24 million in funding to spur the development of Michigan's Technology Tri-Corridor. The funding will advance basic and applied research in Michigan's growing life sciences industry and support commercialization in the life sciences, homeland security and advanced automotive technology sectors, which give the tri-corridor its name.
The four MSU projects and their funding levels are:
- $1,607,533 in continued funding for the Michigan Center for Structural Biology. Under the co-direction of Jack Preiss, MAES researcher, and Shelagh Ferguson-Miller, both of whom are university distinguished professors in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the center uses state-of-the-art equipment to study the structure of proteins and other biological molecules of central importance in biomedical research.
$403,316 for research that is poised to enter the commercial market. Ramani Narayan, professor of chemical and biochemical engineering, pursues new ways to deliver pharmaceutical drugs, such as a transparent gel that would be more comfortable and potentially safer than medicinal eye drops.
"We thought this was perfectly suited for the Technology Tri-Corridor because it offers a way to change the state's economic base," Narayan said. "Products like this have the potential to create higher paying technical jobs and help us retain our qualified students."
- $1,369,097 to explore the use of nanotechnology to mimic cell membranes. The resulting novel sensors and catalysts can form the basis for the development of healthcare products. The lead researcher is Mark Worden, professor of chemical engineering and materials science.
$308,432 to use metal catalysts to create organic compounds that can serve as building blocks for new pharmaceutical drugs. The primary researcher is Robert Maleczka, associate professor of chemistry, who collaborates with chemistry professor Mitch Smith.
"Michigan and Pfizer, Inc., are very closely coupled, and Pfizer is a company that has very generously provided us with quite a bit of equipment," Maleczka said. "The fact that we can use funding from the state and accept equipment from a Michigan company to develop chemistry that could potentially aid the state economy is a nice synergy."
The Technology Tri-Corridor is administered by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and was built on the successful model of the Michigan Life Sciences Corridor. Between 2000 and 2004, the Life Sciences Corridor Fund and the Technology Tri-Corridor Fund have allocated a total of more than $200 million through 118 awards.
MSUE Director Honored by Cherry Industry
Maggie Bethel, director of MSU Extension, received the 2004 Cherry Industry Person of the Year Distinguished Service Award at the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City in July.
Bethel was honored for her exceptional leadership to the cherry industry while serving as MSUE director. The award was presented by the Cherry Marketing Institute.
