ARDC's Sharp recognized for service

Sheldon Sharp, manager of the Agrometeorology Laboratory at ARDC near Mead, was recognized by the National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network for 15 years of service as the site operator.

The program is a network of precipitation monitoring sites across the United States. The purpose of the network is to collect data on the chemistry of precipitation for monitoring of geographical and temporal long-term trends.

Every Tuesday morning at 9 a.m., Sharp collects the precipitation sample, does some basic analysis and sends the sample to a centralized analysis laboratory. Sharp is a staff member of the School of Natural Resource Sciences.

NU team cited for remote sensing paper

An NU team that established the cost-effectiveness of using remote sensing to assess hail damage received second place in the 2001 ERDAS Award for Best Scientific Paper in Remote Sensing.

Al Peters, associate geoscientist with the UNL Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies, led the team.

A joint program of the UNL Conservation and Survey Division and School of Natural Resource Sciences, CALMIT is dedicated to pioneering applications of remote sensing - aerial and satellite imagery - and GIS - computerized means of analyzing and displaying spatial information.

The award is judged by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, whose journal, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, published the article, and is given by ERDAS Inc. of Atlanta, a leading maker of software for geographic information systems. The paper's co-authors were Steven Griffin of IGF Insurance of Des Moines, Iowa, the cooperator in the technology transfer project written up as "Use of Remotely Sensed Data for Assessing Crop Hail Damage," and Andres Vina and Lei Ji of CALMIT.

CALMIT recently received a special achievement award from another leading manufacturer of geographic information systems software in July in San Diego. Given by the Environmental Systems Research Institute of Redlands, Calif., the award recognizes organizations or individuals making outstanding contributions in GIS out of more than 300,000 worldwide.

Adams wins Burgher Beef award

NU animal scientist Don Adams has received the second Wendell Burgher Beef Industry Award from IANR.

Adams lives in North Platte and is a professor of animal science and a beef range systems nutritionist at NU's West Central Research and Extension Center there. Adams' research of grazed forage diets' nutrient content and forage intake for beef cattle helped develop the concept of matching the cow's nutrient requirements with nutrients in grazed forages. This led to developing and evaluating range beef systems that extend grazing, significantly reducing feed and labor costs and improving profitability for beef production. He also worked to improve the use of low-quality forages through supplements and lactation management.

The award took effect July 1 and consists of an annual payment of $6,500 for the next two years. It honors the late Wendell Burgher, a longtime Nebraska cattleman.