Ag Sciences graduate students receive university-wide awards

Ag Sciences graduate students receive university-wide awards

University Park, Pa. -- Three graduate students from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences recently received prestigious university-wide awards recognizing their research and teaching achievements.

Jonathan Lelito, a doctoral candidate in Entomology, won an Alumni Association Dissertation Award for his research on the mating behaviors of the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that attacks North American ash trees. He expanded his research to include two other species of the same genus and has gained national recognition for shedding new light on the roles of visual and chemical cues in insect mating.

Lelito's findings on visual mating cues led him to test and improve novel insect traps used to monitor pest populations. His alterations have helped regulatory officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service improve pest-monitoring methodology and trap design. Lelito's research has resulted in senior authorship of two scientific journal articles and numerous oral presentations regarding his work.

Food Science postdoctoral scholar Tanuj Motwani also won an Alumni Association Dissertation Award for his dissertation on starch gelatinization and the feasibility of new monitoring technology for the industrial processing of starch.

Starch gelatinization is a complex physico-chemical process that can affect a food's texture and digestibility. Motwani's research addressed the industry's need to monitor starch gelatinization rapidly and non-invasively during processing. He examined the potential implementation of dielectric relaxation methods and factors within the starch system that might affect this method. Similar monitoring techniques are used for soups and margarines, where an electromagnetic signal is sent through a food and reflects back to indicate structural changes during processing. A study published in the journal Carbohydrate Polymers used Motwani's research to confirm the method's viability in starch processing.

Michael Fortunato, doctoral candidate in Rural Sociology, received one of 10 university-wide Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Awards for his work as a graduate assistant over the last two years. The Graduate School and the Office of the Vice President and Dean for Undergraduate Education co-sponsor the $500 annual award, which recognizes graduate students who have demonstrated outstanding performance as teaching assistants for at least two semesters. Recipients are chosen based on letters of support from teachers, supervisors and advisers; candidates' curriculum vitae; personal statements highlighting their teaching philosophy; and student evaluations.

Fortunato has been an assistant and guest lecturer for six courses during his graduate career. He completed two undergraduate degrees in Finance/International Business and International Studies with a minor in French from Penn State in 2001. He earned a master's degree in Economic and Community Development from Penn State in 2008 and is now pursuing his doctorate in Rural Sociology.