University of Arizona

Robert F. Moran, chairman and CEO of PetSmart, Inc., was awarded an honorary doctorate at UA’s 148th commencement ceremony on Friday evening. Moran, a long-time partner and collaborator with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has helped establish the PetSmart endowed chair and the PetSmart professor of practice positions in the Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences. Through PetSmart gifts and partnerships, UA retailing, animal sciences and microbiology students have been introduced to training and career opportunities.

Shortly after being awarded his degree, Moran delivered the commencement address to more than 6,000 graduating students and their families and friends gathered at Arizona Stadium. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is proud to feature his speech, given May 10, 2013 in Tucson, Arizona.

UA Commencement Address, May 10, 2013
Robert F. Moran, chairman and CEO, PetSmart, Inc.

President Hart, Board of Regents, Faculty, Administration and Graduates—I want to start with a sincere and heartfelt thank you.

It's a big deal for a kid from the streets of Philly to be in this kind of company, speaking to you today.

Policymakers and scientists from all over the world gathered in Washington, D.C., last week for the G-8 International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture.

The conference calls on global leaders to consider agricultural data: how to share it, how to use it, and how it might help address global food security.

Three experts say the conference matters to Arizona, too, because access to data could foster local food security.

Shane Burgess, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Eric Lyons, assistant professor of plant sciences and senior scientific developer of the iPlant Collaborative, were featured on an April 30 episode of "Arizona Illustrated" to discuss the G-8 conference and the ways open data on agriculture can help address world food security challenges. View this episode at the link below.

Visit the White House blog to learn more about iPlant's participation in the G-8 conference.

One in 50 school-aged children in the United States is diagnosed with autism, according to statistics recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ann Mastergeorge, associate professor of family studies and human development at the University of Arizona, is leading a statewide effort to educate parents, health-care providers and other professionals about how to identify the signs of autism in very young children and how early intervention can help.

Mastergeorge recently was appointed by the CDC as the Act Early Ambassador for Arizona, one of 25 states participating in the initiative, which focuses on early identification of autism and other developmental disabilities. April is National Autism Awareness Month.

Autism – a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired communication and social interaction and behavioral challenges – most often is diagnosed around age 3 or 4, but potential signs of the disorder often appear much earlier, by a child's first birthday, Mastergeorge said.

"We know that we can identify signs in children as young as 6 months of age, not that they have autism but they have signs," Mastergeorge said. "There are specific criteria that we look for at 6 months, at 12 months, at 18 months. We can catch these children very, very young and provide them with intensive early interventions, and it makes a huge difference in terms of their developmental outcomes."

With growing demand for jobs in agriculture, degrees are at a premium.

At the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, undergraduate enrollment has increased nearly 18 percent since 2008, with students gaining the hands-on, real world skills required to land a job following graduation.

“We are working to ensure that when our students graduate, they are ready for employment,” said Joy Winzerling, the Bart Cardon associate dean for academic programs and career development. “In certain disciplines – including agribusiness economics and management and agricultural technology management and education – we are seeing 100 percent placement in jobs among recent graduates.”

Some graduates are finding starting salaries at $40,000 and higher.

CALS, the oldest college on campus and a founding member of the BIO5 Institute, draws students who are interested in feeding the world’s hungry, curing and preventing disease, improving the ecosystem, finding a solution to dependency on foreign oil and other global challenges.

Sarah Cook landed a job with a world-class company developing cutting-edge technology – all before graduating from the University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences/College of Engineering in May 2012.

Cook, 29, who received a bachelor’s in Biosystems Engineering, is using skills she learned at UA to develop new generation harvesters for John Deere. As a hydraulics engineer in research and development, she is based in East Moline, Ill., and is teaming up with John Deere counterparts in Brazil.

The hands-on experience she received at CALS and the College of Engineering prepared her for the professional world, Cook said. Her senior design project, in which she led a team of students in developing a portable aquaponics system, helped her to build leadership and teamwork skills that are critical in the workplace.

“Everyone has to work together on the job, coordinating between departments," Cook said. “You are not just working in your own little bubble.”

When Cook and her husband moved to Tucson, where she became a member of the 162nd Fighter Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard, she knew she wanted to further her education. Cook explored engineering programs at UA, and her choice was clear after meeting with Don Slack, professor of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering at CALS.

A strategy widely used to prevent pests from quickly adapting to crop-protecting toxins may fail in some cases unless better preventive actions are taken, suggests new research by University of Arizona entomologists published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Corn and cotton have been genetically modified to produce pest-killing proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt for short. Compared with typical insecticide sprays, the Bt toxins produced by genetically engineered crops are much safer for people and the environment, explained Yves Carrière, a professor of entomology in the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences who led the study.

Although Bt crops have helped to reduce insecticide sprays, boost crop yields and increase farmer profits, their benefits will be short-lived if pests adapt rapidly, said Bruce Tabashnik, a co-author of the study and head of the UA department of entomology. "Our goal is to understand how insects evolve resistance so we can develop and implement more sustainable, environmentally friendly pest management," he said. Tabashnik and Carrière are both members of the UA's BIO5 Institute.

Massive tree die-offs release less carbon into the atmosphere than previously thought, new research led by the University of Arizona suggests.

Across the world, trees are dying in increasing numbers, most likely in the wake of a climate changing toward drier and warmer conditions, scientists suspect. In western North America, outbreaks of mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae) have killed billions of trees from Mexico to Alaska over the last decade.

Given that large forested areas play crucial roles in taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis and turning it into biomass, an important question is what happens to that stored carbon when large numbers of trees die.

The University of Arizona has established a new School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences that will bring together teaching, research and extension resources from across the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to focus on animal health, growth, nutrition and disease, and human health challenges facing Arizona and the global community.

The UA Faculty Senate approved the creation of the new school on March 4, and it was formally dedicated during a ceremony last week.

The school, which is being developed from the existing department of animal sciences and department of veterinary science and microbiology, will welcome its first undergraduate and graduate class in fall 2013.