
Scientists Win Technology Transfer Honors By
Marcia Wood May
14, 1998Four Agricultural Research Servicescientific teams will receive 1998 Awards for Excellence in Technology Transfer
today from the Federal Laboratory Consortium.
Team members include 13 scientists from ARS laboratories in Arizona, Colorado,
Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. The consortium is
honoring 31 federal scientific teams and individuals at its
annual meeting this week in San
Antonio, Texas. ARS scientists Kevin B. Hicks, Robert A. Moreau and Andrew J. McAloon,
Wyndmoor, Pa.; Robert A. Norton, Peoria, Ill.; and Robert J. Hron, New Orleans,
La., discovered a corn-fiber oil that lowered lab animals' total serum
cholesterol and artery-clogging LDL cholesterol. ARS and the University of
Massachusetts have applied for a patent. Cooperative Research and Development
Agreements and a licensing agreement have been signed with Monsanto Co. Of St.
Louis. Michael J. Kasperbauer and Patrick G. Hunt, Florence, S.C., collaborated
with Clemson University to develop and patent a red plastic mulch that boosts
growth of tomato and other crops. Sonoco Products, Inc., Hartsville, S.C.,
licensed the technology. The mulch is commercially available. It increased
tomato yields in research plots up to 20 percent by reflecting onto plants
higher amounts of certain growth-enhancing light waves from sunlight. Roy T. Cunningham and Nicanor J. Liquido, formerly with ARS at Hilo, Hawaii,
helped test and refine SureDye, formulations of a dye and insect baits to combat
Mediterranean fruit flies--among the worst crop pests.
PhotoDye International, Inc., of
Baltimore has an exclusive license for SureDye and has applied to the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to
register it. David C. Goodrich, Carl L. Unkrich and David A. Woolhiser (retired), Tucson,
Ariz.; and Roger E. Smith, Ft. Collins, Colo., produced the KINEROS computer
program for improved flood and erosion estimates. KINEROS users include
consultants who sized flood spillways of six Michigan dams, reducing
construction costs by more than $16 million. The Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission used KINEROS to update its engineering guidelines. Contact: Marcia Wood, ARS Information Staff, Albany, CA, phone (510)
55-6070, e-mail [email protected]. Story contacts Marcia A Wood U.S. Department of Agriculture | |