For the 20th consecutive year, the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) hosted the prestigious E. Broadus Browne Research Awards competition, resulting in three new graduate students being honored for their outstanding efforts in research and communication.

In recognition of former Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station Director Edmund Broadus Browne, the annual competition highlights some of the best graduate research from departments within the college and challenges contestants with an oral presentation. 

“The E. Broadus Browne Awards recognize graduate students in both doctoral and master’s degree programs based on the creativity of their research and communication skills,” said Harshavardhan Thippareddi, the college’s associate dean for research. “This competition prepares our next generation of scientists for academic, industry or regulatory careers. Communicating science to the research community and the lay audience is increasingly important to inform stakeholders about the need for research and how research supports their best interests.”

Award-winning doctoral researchers

Current doctoral candidate Maria Teresa Tancredi, a native of Central Italy, earned the top award among doctoral students. Tancredi’s research focuses on understanding commodity farmers’ perspectives on conservation practices to develop outreach strategies for increasing adoption in the United States.

“A central takeaway from our research is that the context in which the adoption of conservation practices is happening is really important in determining farmers’ perceptions and decision-making strategies,” said Tancredi. “Our findings show that we can’t isolate specific barriers that are going to be universally true for all U.S. farmers. Rather, we need to evaluate each factor in the specific context we are considering.”

According to her experience, a big part of the adoption effort begins with effective communication.

“I think the best way to communicate research is to engage with stakeholders who have already gained farmers’ trust,” said Tancredi. “These can be Extension agents, federal workers, professionals working for nonprofits, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, industry players and even farmers that are highly regarded in their communities. If we want to engage farmers, especially legacy farmers who have been operating the same way for decades, we first need to make sure we have a clear understanding of their values, needs and concerns so that we can show them how our research can be helpful and relevant for them.”

Coming from a multigenerational farming family, Tancredi became the first member of her family to earn a bachelor’s degree and is the only one to earn a graduate degree. She moved to the U.S. in 2019 to pursue a dual master’s degree with the University of Padova, Italy, and began her doctoral studies in 2021.

Tancredi currently studies under Jennifer Jo Thompson in the Social Sustainability of Agriculture and Food Systems Lab in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.

“I always enjoy sharing my research,” said Tancredi. “Being able to win this award among all of the other students in the college made me feel very valued in the work that we do as social scientists in agriculture.”

Finishing runner-up was Daniel Matusinec, presenting his research on identifying new sources of resistance to stem rot in wild peanut species.

“Being able to watch the other students present made me realize how broad the range of research being done in the college is,” Matusinec said. “It was great to learn a lot from the other talks because, through this competition, you can learn about things from plant breeding to sociological research to a wide range of other topics.”

A Wisconsin native, Matusinec’s introduction to peanut breeding, one of Georgia’s most important and iconic crops, came after years of research and expertise with cranberries.

“What’s been really cool about getting to work on a different crop system is being able to understand how to use different genetic resources,” said Matusinec. “Working with crops' wild relatives allows us to expand genetic diversity and find new, useful traits to improve crops in areas such as disease resistance.”

Matusinec is currently a member of the UGA Wild Peanut Lab, operating under supervision of David Bertioli, professor and Georgia Research Alliance/Georgia Seed Development distinguished investigator in peanut genetics, genomics and evolution.

Top master’s researcher

Heading up the master’s classification, Carlton Collins’ investigation into citrus greening disease earned him first-place honors.

Born in Jamaica, Collins’ introduction to citrus production came on a small scale through his father’s agricultural cooperative. His passion for finding a solution through early detection and characterization is a result of seeing the devastating effects as a teenager.

“Citrus greening disease, and other viruses and pathogens, had pretty much wiped out much of Jamaica’s citrus industry,” Collins said. “It was bad. They were trying to replenish the industry with new trees that were disease-free, and they became interested in the work my dad was doing.”

Collins always had an interest in agriculture in general, but this experience led him down the path to plant pathology. After migrating to the U.S. and completing his bachelor’s degree in Idaho, he found a home under Alejandra Maria Jimenez Madrid, director of UGA’s Plant Molecular Diagnostic Lab.

“I enjoyed competing in E. Broadus Browne and having the opportunity to challenge myself,” said Collins. “When writing the report and preparing my presentation, it was emphasized to put my work into a perspective that a knowledgeable layperson would understand. It allowed me to make sure that I was being the person that I wanted people to be for me when I started learning about plant pathology.”

Two decades of continuous competition

Starting the longest run of consecutive E. Broadus Browne Awards competitions in CAES history, the 2006 contest revitalized the highly regarded graduate-level challenge.

Since then, 59 outstanding students, including this year’s trio, have been awarded first-place or runner-up, resulting in cash awards, travel funding or other financial benefits that aid in preparing them for a professional career.

“Marking 20 consecutive years of holding this competition for our graduate students shows our dedication to the participants and winners in preparation for them to excel in their field,” Thippareddi said. “Those who have gone on to win the award have continued to do great things.”

More about the E. Broadus Browne Research Awards 

The E. Broadus Browne Research Awards were established following Browne's death in 1987. The first-place doctoral award recipient receives $2,000 and up to $2,500 in travel funding to attend a professional meeting, and the first-place master’s award recipient receives $1,000 and up to $2,500 in travel funding. Second place in each category is awarded $1,000 and $500, respectively.   

To learn more about the awards and to view previous winners, visit caes.uga.edu/research.