Cassman and Clemente Accompany Nebraska Soybean Board to Brazil
Ken Cassman and Tom Clemente (Agronomy and Horticulture) accompanied members of the Nebraska Soybean Board to Mato Grosso, Brazil, in March. The purpose of the trip was to visit areas where soybean production is expanding rapidly and to learn about preventative measures Brazillian soybean farmers are taking to avoid yield lost from the new Asian rust disease--a disease that has been recently found in the USA.
The group saw conversion of tropical rainforest into new soybean crop land. Because much of the current expansion is occurring at the expense of rainforest where soils are highly acidic and of low inherent fertility, the group was impressed by the high costs of production due to requirements for large applilcations of lime and fertilizers to maintain yields.In addition, most farmers were spraying their fields several times with fungicide to prevent yield loss from rust. Lack of transportation infrastructure also appeared to be a limiting factor to further expansion of soybean area. Taken together, the better soil quality, lower costs for fertilizer and pest control, and much lower transportation costs provide important competitive advantages to Nebraska soybean producers compared thier Brazillian counterparts, especially at the frontier of further expansion into rainforest.

Reinhard Working in Brazil

In December 2004, Karl J. Reinhard (School of Natural Resources) was awarded Fulbright Senior Specialist status in Botanical Archaeology. He will have this status for five years.
      In January through February 2005, Dr. Reinhard taught a course in São Paulo, Brazil called "Paleoetnobotânica: Dados Arqueológicos e Problemas de Saúde no Mundo Moderno" (Paleoethnobotany: archaeological data and modern health problems); and has several articles in press or recently published on international work done primarily in Brazil.
       Dr. Reinhard on the organizing committee for the First South America Paleopathology Meeting to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this July.

Dienstbier Will Be Visiting Professor in Australia

Richard Dienstbier, Psychology, will be a Visiting Professor in the Centre for Applied Psychological Research in the Psychology Department at the University of South Australia in Adelaide in Spring, 2006 (from 2/06 through 6/06).

Tyre Gives Workshop in Australia
Drew Tyre, School of Natural Resources, was recently invited to a workshop in Australia on "Decision making for conservation under uncertainty". Particpants explored methods for using ecological models to guide decision making when very little is known about the details of the biology. This is particularly important for threatened and endangered species, where accurate information is usually scarce, and the consequences of errors are irreversible (extinction is forever!). After the workshop finished in Melbourne Dr. Tyre travelled to Adelaide for a joint research project with Prof. Michael Bull of Flinders University on the behaviour of sleepy lizards. Dr. Tyre also discussed his work on correcting observation errors in biological survey data with representatives of the South Australian government; the results of that work are modifying ecological monitoring programs across southern Australia. The software Dr. Tyre developed for correcting observation errors is in use in Australia, Canada, and the USA.

Brazilian Students Study Agroecology

As part of the cooperative exchange program with Brazil, four students are in Lincoln for the last half of the spring semester and the summer. They are sitting in UNL classes for two months, and then working on area farms for practical experience. They have already made presentations in two courses on East Campus, and continue an active participation in class discussions.
      Daniel Enriquez and Marcelo Venturi are students in Agronomy at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianopolis, in southern Brazil. They are interested in permaculture, recycling, and design of integrated agroecosystems for the transitional zones of agriculture. Thais Ferraz and Marcelo Pupo are students in Biology at the University of Campinas in Sao Paulo state. They are interested in the application of biological principles in the design of productive and environmentally-sustainable agricultural systems.
       While at UNL they are attending courses in agroecology, organic farming, urbanization of rural landscapes, and ecology. Field trips so far include visits to the cranes on the Platte River near Kearney, to the urban sprawl regions of Douglas and Washington Counties, and to Konza Prairie south of Manhattan, Kansas. From May to July they will work on four farms, learning first hand about Nebraska cropping and crop/animal systems. In late July they will join students from Iowa State, Minnesota, and Wisconsin in a course on Agroecosystems Analysis based on farm visits in three states.
       The program is cooperative with University of California -- Berkeley, Universidade Federal do Santa Catarina, Universidade do Campinas, and UNL. The program is financed by FIPSE of the U.S. Department of Education and CAPES that is a similar organization in Brazil. Christa Joy and Ariella Raley from International Affairs have been instrumental in helping them adjust to Nebraska and our university. Miguel Angel Altieri (UCB) and Chuck Francis (UNL) are the coordinators of the U.S. part of the program.

Forsythe Interviews Former UN Secretary General

David P. Forsythe, Charles J. Mach Distinguished Professor of Political Science, will interview Javier Perez de Cuellar, former United Nations Secretary-General, in Paris in late May. This is part of research for a book project studying the role of personal values, religious or secular, in public policy by all the UN Secretaries-General. A multi-author research team will produce the book, to be published in 2006.

Stroup Presents Invited paper

Walt Stroup, Statistics, travelled to Halle, Germany, March 19-24, to present an invited paper at the German Biometric Society meetings. The paper was entitled "Mixed Models and the Design of Experiments."

Reese Repeats Study Tour to Denmark

Dr. Duane Reese, Associate Professor of Animal Science, will co-direct "The Food and Society Nexus" study tour to Denmark from May 8-28, 2005. This program is funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE).

University of Nebraska Press May Titles of International Interest
	The French Navy and the Seven Years' War By Jonathan R. Dull A comprehensive work integrating diplomatic, naval, military, and political history, The French Navy and the Seven Years’ War thoroughly explores the French perspective on the Seven Years’ War. It also studies British diplomacy and war strategy as well as the roles played by the American colonies, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Portugal.       Dull’s book is the first in the new series, France Overseas: Studies in Empire and Decolonization (series editors: Philip Boucher, A. J. B. Johnston, James D. Le Sueur, and Tyler Stovall). By examining French colonial history in a global context, the series uncovers the importance of the French colonial experience in the creation of the modern world. http://nebraskapress.unl.edu/bookinfo/4762.html
	The State at War in South Asia By Pradeep P. Barua The State at War in South Asia is the first book to cover such a vast period of South Asian military history—more than three thousand years. This meticulous study offers a panoramic view of the evolution of the South Asian state’s military system and its contribution to the effectiveness of the state itself. http://nebraskapress.unl.edu/bookinfo/4642.html

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