TEXAS A&M, MISSISSIPPI STATE AND UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS STUDENTS CAPTURE GRADUATE PHYSIOLOGY PRESENTATION HONORS

MEMPHIS (Special) - Graduate students at Texas A&M University, Mississippi State University and the University of Arkansas captured honors in the BASF Outstanding Student Presentation Awards competition at the recent 2000 Beltwide Cotton Physiology Conference in San Antonio, TX.

Shani File, a student at Mississippi State University, took top honors in the oral competition. She received $200 for "Field and Laboratory Tolerance of Roundup Ready Cotton to Glyphosate."

Ty Whitten and Evelyn Steglich, students at Texas A&M University, took second and third place honors, respectively. Whitten received $100 for "Varietal Comparisons in Ultra-Narrow Row Cotton" and Steglich received $50 for "Change in the Light Extinction Coefficient With Row Spacing in Land Cotton."

In the poster competition, Texas A&M students Ryan P. Viator and Russell Nuti, took first and second place honors, respectively. Viator collected $200 for "Factors Affecting Roundup Ready Cotton Fruit Retention" and Nuti garnered $100 for "Comparisons of PIX (Mepiquat Chloride) and PIX PLUS in Cotton." University of Arkansas student Casey Meek received $50 for her third place poster, "Effects of Glycine Betaine on the Physiology and Yield of Water-Deficit Sensitive and Tolerant Cotton Cultivars."

The 11-year-old awards program is designed to encourage outstanding graduate work in cotton physiology and promote graduate student attendance at the National Cotton Council-coordinated Beltwide Cotton Conferences. The Cotton Physiology Conference is one of 12 cotton research conferences which convene at the annual forum.

"This awards program is entering its second decade of recognizing and encouraging students to continue excellence in cotton physiology research and education," said Todd Henderson, communications manager for BASF Agricultural Products.

The company, with headquarters in Research Triangle Park, NC, is a unit of BASF Corporation that develops a range of innovative crop protection products and systems that enable growers to be more cost-efficient and increase crop field potential. More information about BASF and its products is available at www.agproducts.basf.com.