Jenna Kuttruff, center, head of the LSU College of Agriculture’s Department of Textiles, Apparel Design and Merchandising, was named the Beverly Griffin Shea Alumni Association Departmental Professor. Beverly and Jerry Shea created the professorship to promote research within the department. (Photo by Tobie Blanchard)

Dan Fromme, an associate professor and state corn and cotton specialist with the LSU AgCenter, was named the Tom and Martha Burch and Delta & Pine Land Company Professor. (Photo by Tobie Blanchard)

Brenda Tubaña, an associate professor in the LSU AgCenter School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences, was named to Jack E. and Henrietta Jones Professor. (Photo by Tobie Blanchard)

Lina Bernaoli, center, a graduate student in the LSU Department of Entomology, received the Ray and Dorothy Young Endowed Assistantship in Louisiana Row Crop Integrated Pest Management. Ray and Dorothy Young have been active in Louisiana’s cotton industry for more than 50 years. (Photo by Tobie Blanchard)

Ben McInnes, right, a graduate student in the Department of Plant Pathology, received the DuPont Crop Protection assistantship. He is pictured with Rogers Leonard, LSU AgCenter associate vice chancellor and program leader in plant and soil sciences. (Photo by Tobie Blanchard)

BATON ROUGE, La – Three faculty members and two graduate students in the LSU AgCenter and College of Agriculture have received financial awards to carry out research.

Faculty members Jeanna Kuttruff, Dan Fromme and Brenda Tubaña were named to endowed professorships. Graduate students Lina Bernaoli and Ben McInnes received assistantships.

Bill Richardson, LSU vice president for agriculture and dean of the College of Agriculture, said it is through the generosity, loyalty and oftentimes an opportunity to pay it forward that alumni and friends choose to create a professorship.

“A professorship provides perpetual support for outstanding faculty members and enables him or her to pursue research and innovative teaching methods,” Richardson said.

Head of the Department of Textiles, Apparel Design and Merchandising, Kuttruff was named the Beverly Griffin Shea Alumni Association Departmental Professor. Kuttruff’s research has focused on historical textiles such as Acadian dress and 19th century burial garments.

Beverly Shea, an alumna of the College of Agriculture who studied textiles and apparel design, said her husband, Jerry, donated the professorship as a birthday present to her.

Fromme, an associate professor with the LSU AgCenter, was named the Tom and Martha Burch and Delta & Pine Land Company Professor. Fromme is the state cotton and corn specialist.

Tubaña, an associate professor in the School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences, was named the Jack E. and Henrietta Jones Professor. Tubaña’s area of specialization is soil fertility and nutrient management for major row crops grown in Louisiana.

Lina Bernaoli, a graduate student in the Department of Entomology, received the Ray and Dorothy Young Endowed Assistantship in Louisiana Row Crop Integrated Pest Management. Bernaoli studies the effects of mycorrhizal fungi, a symbiotic, soil-borne organism, on rice resistance to insect herbivores and pathogens.

The Louisiana Agriculture Consultants Association helped create the Ray and Dorothy Young Endowed Assistantship. The Youngs have been involved in cotton for more than 50 years through farming and Ray Young’s work as a crop consultant.

Ben McInnes, a graduate student in the Department of Plant Pathology, received the DuPont Crop Protection assistantship. DuPont created the assistantship for students working in the area of crop protection.

McInnes’ research focuses on nematology, and his long-term goal is to work for an agricultural chemical company.

Tobie Blanchard