Graduate Students Receive National Alfalfa Conference Award
Dulan Samarappuli (left) and Alfredo Aponte
NDSU Plant Sciences graduate students Dulan Samarappuli and Alfredo Aponte each received a $1,000 Graduate Student Award from the North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference (NAAIC) to attend the 43rd annual NAAIC meeting in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada in July. They will each present their research results during the conference. Samarappuli's presentation is entitled "Intercropping Corn and Forage Sorghum for Hay Production in North Dakota." The title of Aponte's presentation is "Alfalfa-grass Mixtures Performance for Forage/Biomass Production in North Dakota." Samarappuli’s and Aponte’s graduate program adviser is Dr. Marisol Berti, forages and biomass production project leader and associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at NDSU.
The NAAIC established a travel grant program for graduate students giving oral or poster presentations at the annual meeting. According to Jenna Knoblauch of the NAAIC, “These grants are funded through NAAIC thanks to a sponsorship by The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation. Award recipients are selected based on the originality and relevance of the research presentation to alfalfa/forage improvement.”
The NAAIC exists to “promote the development of improved alfalfa cultivars and management practices through education, communication, and professional development of research scientists, educators, and commercial representatives in North America and around the world.” Learn more about the organization at http://www.naaic.org.
Source: Marisol Berti, 701-231-6110, marisol.berti@ndsu.edu
Author: Kamie Beeson, 701-231-7123, kamie.a.beeson@ndsu.edu
