Scotts Company Gifts Support Beard Fellowship, 4-H
The Ohio State University has announced recent gifts totaling $110,000 to the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences from The Scotts Company of Marysville, Ohio. The bulk of the gift will support the James B and Harriet Beard Graduate Fellowship Fund in Turfgrass Physiology/Biochemistry, established in 2002 with a gift from the Beards. The remaining $10,000 will support Ohio 4-H's Junior Master Gardener Program.
“Scotts is a national and international leader in the 'green industry,' a business sector that impacts our lives in many ways each day,&rdquo: said Stephen Myers, Ph.D., chair of Ohio State's Department of Horticulture and Crop Science. “Scotts Company support of graduate education through the Beard Fellowship is a testament to their vision and leadership concerning the importance of both research and advanced degrees to the future of our economy, quality of life, and our environment. This gift will further assist the Turfgrass Science faculty in taking the program to even greater levels of excellence.”
Endowed graduate research fellowships represent an excellent way to recruit, retain, and support outstanding students. In fact, turfgrass faculty members at Ohio State are so committed to establishing these fellowships that they have pledged more than $10,000 in personal support for them.
The Beard Fellowship is the first in a series of eight planned endowed fellowships to support graduate student researchers in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. With a fund-raising goal of $400,000 for each of these fellowships, the college is working to raise private funds to establish them by 2010. Once its funding is completed, each endowed fellowship fund will generate $20,000 in annual interest income, providing stipends, tuition, and fees for outstanding graduate students selected as Beard Fellows.
“This gift recognizes Jim Beard's interaction and contributions to the many facets of the turf industry,&rdquo said Bruce Augustin, Ph.D., director of field biology for The Scotts Company. “Jim served many years on The Scotts Company Board of Directors and has provided immeasurable service to the company. We are pleased that the Beard Fellowship will help Ohio State's Turf Science Program to continue its longtime tradition of researching, and explaining to the world, how and why turfgrasses grow.”
The turfgrass industry generates more than $1.1 billion of revenue each year in Ohio alone, in areas such as grounds, sports turf, commercial sod, and golf turf management. With a rich history of achievement dating back to the 1930s, Ohio State's nationally recognized Turfgrass Science Program investigates, synthesizes, and disseminates knowledge on turfgrass science to students, consumers, and professional clientele throughout Ohio, the nation, and the world. With strong graduate and undergraduate programs as the cornerstones of its turfgrass program, the program is led by a team of 14 distinguished faculty and staff members. Faculty and graduate research includes pioneering work on localized dry spots, pesticide and nutrient fate in the turfgrass ecosystem, development of late-season fertilization programs, management of diseases and pasts, parasitic nematode biology, water flow through high sand content putting greens, and pioneering work in turfgrass identification and ecological studies using molecular techniques.
Focusing on turfgrass physiology and biochemistry, with emphasis on plant stress, Beard Fellows will conduct research at either the molecular or whole-plant level, to provide better insight into how turfgrass plants respond to stresses induced by biotic or abiotic factors. Long-term results of this research will include development of efficient cultural management systems for turfgrass.
A 1957 graduate of Ohio State in agronomy, Dr. James Beard is president and chief scientist of The International Sports Turf Institute Inc. and professor emeritus of Turfgrass Science at Texas A&M University. An esteemed teacher, mentor, and researcher and an internationally recognized leader in the field of turfgrass science, he has served as technical advisor to turfgrass organizations across the country and around the world. The author of hundreds of scientific papers and articles, he has authored five books and a laboratory manual, in collaboration with his wife, Harriet. His vision and leadership were instrumental in the formation of the Noer Turfgrass Collection at Michigan State University, the International Turfgrass Research Conference, and the U.S. Golf Association Research Fund.
In 2002, Scotts Company funding helped to bring The Junior Master Gardener JMG) Program-which, through fun and creative activities, offers horticultural and environmental science education, as well as leadership and life-skills development opportunities-to Ohio youth statewide. With its most recent gift to the program, The Scotts Company upports training opportunities for volunteers and OSU Extension professionals, handbooks and teacher-guides, and JMG start-up funds for several 4-H clubs across Ohio.
Headquartered in Ohio for over 131 years, The Scotts Company is the world's leader in do-it-yourself lawn and garden consumer products. Its family of trusted brands includes Scotts, Miracle-Gro and Ortho; specialty brands Osmocote, Hyponex, and Earthgro; and other brands in the U.K. and continental Europe. In addition, Scotts is the exclusive worldwide marketing agent for the consumer Roundup brand, owned by Monsanto; offers a full range of products for professional horticulture; and Scotts LawnService, now in 46 of the top 100 lawn service markets in the United States.
The Scotts Company's long and generous history of support for Ohio State has included gifts to the Center for Excellence in Manufacturing Management at the Max M. Fisher College of Business; the Department of Microbiology in the College of Biological Sciences; the Wexner Center for the Arts; WOSU Stations, and the Department of Athletics, in addition to a number of gifts to the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, which include past support for turfgrass research and 4-H programs, as well as for the Department of Plant Pathology, the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, and the School of Natural Resources. The Scotts Company's most recent gifts are part of Ohio State's ongoing fund-raising efforts in support of the Academic Plan.
Contacts for more information:
* Suzanne Steel, director of Communications, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University, (614)
292-9637 or steel.7@osu.edu.
* Lynda Heyl, director of development, College of Food, Agricultural,and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University, (614) 292-0473 or
heyl.1@osu.edu.
