Author: michellejones

Greenhouse Coordinator Position Available at OSU’s OARDC in Wooster, Ohio

New williams Greenhouse3

 

An exciting career opportunity is available to manage state of the art research greenhouses at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC). The OARDC is the research arm of The Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and is located in Wooster, Ohio. The Greenhouse Coordinator would oversee the daily operation of the Gourley and Williams Greenhouse complexes and the growth chambers and refrigerated storage facilities for the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science. Both greenhouse complexes are controlled by an Argus Titan Environmental Control system. The Williams Greenhouses were completed in 2014, and the Gourley Greenhouse was renovated with a new Argus Control system in 2011/ 2012. This position offers an excellent benefits package, which includes tuition assistance for yourself and your dependents.

The Ohio State University is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, national origin, disability status, or protected veteran status.

Applications must be made online at http://www.jobsatosu.com/postings/411448

Any questions about the position please contact Dr. Michelle Jones (330 263 3885, jones.1968@osu.edu) or Dr. John Cardina (330 263 3644, cardina.2@osu.edu).

New Research Greenhouses on the OSU Wooster (OARDC) Campus

It has now been almost two months since we have had the keys to our new greenhouses. The verdict so far- “They are really great!” Are there a few things we may have done differently? Maybe. But I think the overall opinion from the occupants is that these greenhouses are wonderful. The new Williams Hall Greenhouse complex on the OARDC campus in Wooster, Ohio contains 14,400 sq ft of space for conducting greenhouse research and growing exceptional plants for laboratory based research projects (~20,000 sq ft including the hallways). They are Nexus houses with glass glazing. The complex includes 14 bays that are 24’ x 40’ and two smaller bays that are 24’ x 20’. The greenhouses are controlled by an Argus Titan 2 environmental control system. Each room is equipped with supplemental lighting and shade curtains, all controlled by Argus. Individual rooms have fertigation systems and many of the projects use automatic irrigation/ fertigation. Some new features include soil moisture probes that can be used to control the irrigation frequency based on the media moisture content (also controlled by Argus). This facility replaces the one that was destroyed in September 2010 by a tornado that ripped through the OARDC campus. It has been a long time coming, but our new facility will enhance the research and educational capabilities of our programs, and it is a huge improvement from the greenhouses that previously occupied this site. We want to thank everyone who was involved with this project, especially the L.L. Klink design build team. If you plan to be in Wooster, give me a call and I will give you a tour.

Michelle Jones

D.C. Kiplinger Floriculture Chair

jones.1968@osu.edu

330-263-3885

 

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New Williams Hall Greenhouses on the OSU OARDC campus Wooster, Ohio.

New Williams Hall Greenhouses on the OSU OARDC campus Wooster, Ohio.

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Greenhouses and research projects were destroyed when a tornado hit the OARDC campus on September 16, 2010.

Greenhouses and research projects were destroyed when a tornado hit the OARDC campus on September 16, 2010.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First D.C. Kiplinger Scholar Graduates from The Ohio State University

December 2014 saw the graduation of the first D.C. Kiplinger Scholar from the D.C. Kiplinger Crop Improvement Program at The Ohio State University. The D.C. Kiplinger Endowment, which funds the D.C. Kiplinger Floriculture Chair, was established at OSU in the late 1970’s. In 2008, when I became the D.C. Kiplinger Chair holder, I established the D.C. Kiplinger Award of Distinction to recruit top tier graduate students to the program. This graduate award was designed to provide some unique educational opportunities to floriculture students interested in learning how to apply molecular biology techniques to problems of relevance to the floriculture industry. Students are also afforded the opportunity to collaborate with the floriculture industry through extension workshops and greenhouse visits with the OSU Floriculture Extension Team and through an industry internship. Shaun Broderick graduated with his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in December 2014 as the first D.C. Kiplinger Scholar. Shaun was an exceptional student who accomplished a great deal during his time at OSU. His dissertation research focused on optimizing virus-induced silencing (VIGS) in Petunia x hybrida (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11105-013-0647-3#). Petunia is used as a model ornamental species and VIGS is used as a high throughput means of characterizing the function of different genes of interest. Shaun also completed a next generation sequencing project in petunia that identified over 4,000 genes that are potentially involved in controlling the initiation of senescence in flower petals (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186%2Fs12870-014-0307-2#page-1). For his industry internship, Shaun spent a summer working with Dr. Alan Blowers at Ball Helix in West Chicago, IL. Dr. Shaun Broderick is currently beginning the next chapter of his career as an Assistant Professor of Ornamental Plant Breeding at Mississippi State University.

 

Shaun Broderick collecting petunia corollas for his RNA sequencing project.

Shaun Broderick collecting petunia corollas for his RNA sequencing project.

Shaun conferring with Drs. Francesca Hand and Claudio Pasian during an extension visit to a local greenhouse.

Shaun conferring with Drs. Francesca Hand and Claudio Pasian during an extension visit to a local greenhouse.

 

Michelle L. Jones

D.C. Kiplinger Floriculture Chair

jones.1968@osu.edu

330-263-3885