Leake Co. senior at MSU receives national research recognition
Contact: Sarah Buckleitner
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擜 high-achieving agronomy major at 花秀直播 State is a top finisher in recent national student competition.
Senior Matthew A. Tucker of Carthage took second-place honors in oral presentation during the National Student Research Symposium Contest. The event in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was part of the joint annual conference of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America and Soil Science Society of America.
Tucker, a plant and soil science major concentrating in golf and sports turf management, is a President鈥檚 List Scholar at the university, as well as a member of the Phi Kappa Phi national honor society chapter. He is a 2014 graduate of East Central Community College.
In the contest, he was among 14 student representatives of 13 U.S. institutions of higher learning. Each was given approximately 10 minutes to make presentations on their research projects, followed by nearly 20 minutes answering questions from the judges and audience members.
In addition to speaking abilities, scoring was based on a project鈥檚 research rigor and significance in the scientific world.
Tucker鈥檚 work involved an examination of screening methods for water stress in seedlings and identification of drought-tolerant lines of tall fescue and bermudagrass. Germination is a crucial point in the lifetime of a plant and, by finding ways to test for water stress, his investigation may help plant breeders as they work to produce improved varieties of grasses.聽
Assistant professor Christian Baldwin, Tucker鈥檚 faculty adviser, described the Leake Countian as 鈥渁n incredible presenter鈥 who is both 鈥渨ell-spoken and knows what he鈥檚 talking about.
鈥淭he first time I heard him speak, I was struck by how engaging he was and by how he clearly grasped the material,鈥 Baldwin added.
A turfgrass management specialist and MSU faculty member since 2012, Baldwin observed that 鈥渢he biggest thing that sets Matthew apart from other students is his commitment to understanding a topic from beginning to end. With this project, he was involved in everything; he did the work, analyzed the data and put together the presentation.鈥
Over the decades, the golf and sports turf management program of the plant and soil sciences department in MSU鈥檚 College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has earned international recognition for groundbreaking turfgrass research in pathology, pest management and breeding. For more about the department, visit .
MSU is 花秀直播鈥檚 leading university, available online at .