Alexandria, Virginia, USA
January 12, 2012
The Future Seed Executives (FuSE) committee of the American Seed Trade Association was proud to host its 1stannual “Best Poster Awards” at ASTA’s CSS 2011 and Seed Expo in Chicago, Ill. at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The contest was created to showcase graduate student research projects in the seed industry and included poster presentations conducted by students within the FuSE lounge on the Seed Expo show floor.
The Best Poster Award program, sponsored by Dow AgroSciences, was presented to the three best poster presentations in the FuSE lounge on the Seed Expo show floor at ASTA’s CSS 2011 & Seed Expo. The FuSE lounge in the Seed Expo hosted 16 presentations submitted by students from various universities, including Purdue University, the University of Iowa, R.D. National College, Bandra, the University of Mumbai and the University of Illinois. Posters were also displayed in the Riverside Exhibition Hall from December 6-8, 2011, where students were required to be present with their posters to discuss their work with conference attendees.
The posters were judged by the 2011 FuSE chairman, Peter Bratney, ASTA’s chairman, Mike Gumina, ASTA’s vice chairman, Blake Curtis, and ASTA’s Soybean Division chairman, Jeff Shaner, as well as two representatives from Dow AgroSciences. The final results were tabulated by a representative of Dow AgroSciences and published in the ASTA’s new Daily Seed show newspaper the following morning.
Prizes were awarded for first, second and third place according to the presentation criteria. The first-place winner will receive a $300 scholarship, the second-place winner a $200 scholarship and the third-place winner a $100 scholarship. The first-place winners, Kartik Krothapalli and Alex Renaud, are currently enrolled at Purdue University, and focused their presentation on "Functional Stay-Green in Maize." The second-place winner, Erik Christian of Iowa State University, focused his presentation on “Alternating Temperatures Promote Seed Germination of Miscanthus sinensis.” Third-place winner Ruth Rolling, also of Iowa State, focused her presentation on the “Influence of Seed Priming on Agronomic Performance in Soybeans.”
“This event was a great opportunity for students to improve their professional presentation skills, examine the research of their peers, network with industry professionals, and gain an improved understanding of the seed industry,” says contest judge, Chris Boomsma, research crop physiologist/product development agronomistwith Dow AgroSciences. “Given Dow AgroSciences’ commitment to education in the agricultural sciences, this contest was a great occasion for the company to support the next generation of scientists tasked with meeting the food, feed, fiber, and fuel demands of a burgeoning world population.”
Posters were judged based on:
-abstract/conclusions—content, clarity, format and grammar
-project development—rationale, hypothesis, objectives, organization, methods and application to appropriate crop/plant science disciplines
-presentation of project results—balance in the quantity and quality of information presented in support of the study’s objectives, capability for rapid viewer absorption of essential results, and appropriate grammar and style
-appearance—engaging title, attractive layout, legible font size for all text, well-designed tables and figures, clear and relevant photographs and logical progression
-physical presence and oration—interaction and mannerisms with poster viewers and judges including voice, confidence, enthusiasm, enunciation and response to questions
The FuSE initiative became an official sub-committee of ASTA’s Management Skills Committee in 2004. FuSE focuses on educating and supporting future seed industry executives, namely those with fewer than seven years of seed industry experience.
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