Alfred E. “Alf” Harper has had a major impact on nutritional science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, across the country and around the world.

John and Pete Kappelman’s contributions to the signature industry in America’s Dairyland have earned them the Honorary Recognition Award from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

People interested in starting grass-based dairy farms won’t have to travel long distances to learn from current graziers and other grass-based dairy specialists. A Distance Education project based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences will allow students to “meet” with the experts at county UW-Extension offices and on their home computers. The seminar will be taught at the Animal Sciences building on the CALS campus, with audio and synchronized PowerPoint visuals transmitted over the Internet to county offices and home PCs.

John Brunnquell of Port Washington, Wis. and Cindy Baumgartner of Plainfield, Wis. have been elected president and vice-president of the Wisconsin Agricultural and Life Sciences Alumni Association for 1999-2000. Brunnquell earned a B.S. in 1986 and M.S. in 1996 from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is president of Egg Innovations, a specialty egg marketing group. Baumgartner is a farmer and 1979 CALS graduate. With her husband, she is involved in a business, Pest Pros, a crop protection/scouting firm.

Richard M. Amasino, a plant molecular biologist in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been named the recipient of the 1999 Alexander von Humboldt Award. Amasino will receive the award at a ceremony Oct. 28 in Madison, Wis.

For a second year, the Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will help soybean growers monitor their fields for the soybean cyst nematode.

Food chemists John Lucey and Leslie Plhak have joined the Department of Food Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

For more than a decade now, Wisconsin’s dairy farmers have seen and heard a great deal about the trend toward larger operations. Some farmers want no part of a major expansion. Others look at their old barns and wonder if there’s a reasonable way to move to a larger operation without spinning out of control financially.

Four tours will highlight the latest in crops and soils research at Agronomy Field Day, Thursday, Sept. 16 at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Arlington Agricultural Research Station.

Baldwin, professor emeritus of bacteriology and former dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, helped discover bacteria that improved crop yields. A World War I veteran, he held several top posts at the University of Wisconsin during a career on campus that spanned four decades.