News Stories - Page 34

George Vellidis, professor in the department of crop and soil sciences in the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, has been named University Professor, a title bestowed on those who have had a significant impact on the university in addition to fulfilling their normal academic responsibilities.

Because peanut is nutritious, relatively inexpensive and shelf stable, the nut already is the main component in Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food to help children recover from severe malnutrition and in supplementary foods to prevent malnutrition. Numerous studies show cognitive benefits to people who consume nuts; research currently under way through the Peanut Innovation Lab could directly show that eating peanuts can help children succeed in school.

Zenglu Li, a professor in soybean breeding, genetics and genomics at the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), has been named to the Georgia Seed Development Professorship in Soybean Breeding and Genetics.

Bright green grass across the fields, lawns and roadsides of northern and central Georgia is making those parts of the state look more like Ireland than a typical Georgia in February. Copious rain, coupled with periods of much warmer-than-normal temperatures, is waking up plants early and causing them to green up.

William "Bill" Branch, a professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and a peanut breeder with the University of Georgia, has been named to the Georgia Seed Development Professorship in Peanut Breeding and Genetics.

Georgia weather is predictably unpredictable, bitter cold one week and balmy the next. For that reason, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension experts urge Georgia growers to pay close attention to the weather over the coming months and be prepared to use irrigation for frost protection and potential dry conditions as we move into spring.