Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching, Research Awards go to CASNR standouts
By: Norman Martin
Two faculty members with Texas Tech University's College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources have been selected to receive Chancellor's Council Distinguished Faculty Awards, the highest faculty honor in the university system.
CASNR's winners are Courtney Meyers, an associate professor and graduate studies coordinator with the Department of Agricultural Education and Communications, and Venugopal Mendu, an assistant professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Science.
The teaching and research awards ceremony, which includes a $5,000 stipend and an engraved medallion, will be held on Thursday (Jan. 25) at the university's McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center. Texas Tech University System Chancellor Robert L. Duncan and Lawrence Schovanec, Texas Tech president, are set to make the presentations.
Meyers, who will receive a Distinguished Teaching Award, has been an associate professor of agricultural communications at Tech since 2014 after joining the faculty as assistant professor in 2008. The Kansas native received her bachelor's degree in agricultural communication and journalism from Kansas State University. Her master's degree in agricultural and extension education is from the University of Arkansas, and her doctorate in agricultural education and communication from the University of Florida.
Recent awards for Meyers include being named a 2018 Integrated Scholar by the university, the Bumpers College Alumni Society's Outstanding Young Alumna at the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville (2017), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's New Teacher Award (2015).
Separately, Mendu, who received a Distinguished Research Award, is focused on plant physiology and biochemistry, particularly plant cell wall biology. His lab is working on the regulation of cellulose biosynthesis in plants. One of his goals has been to identify and characterize the genes involved in the plant cell wall biosynthesis using model plant Arabidopsis and apply for the cotton fiber improvement.
Mendu received his bachelor's degree in agriculture and master's degree in genetics and plant breeding from ANGR Agricultural University-India. His doctorate in plant physiology/biochemistry/molecular biology is from the University of Kentucky. Recent awards for Mendu include the Texas Tech Alumni Association's New Faculty Award (2017) and CASNR Research Award (2017).
CONTACT: Steven Fraze, Interim Dean, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2808 or steven.fraze@ttu.edu
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