LEXINGTON, KY (May 10th, 2013) - The graduate student awards dinner was held in the Boone Faculty Center on the evening of April 18th.The Doyle Peaslee Outstanding Graduate Student Award was presented to Yang Yang, a Soil Science PH.D candidate.

In August 2010, Yang Yang joined the Ph.D. program in Soil Physics in our department. She received her B.S. degree in 2007 in the School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, China, and she worked on agricultural non-point source pollution under Dr. Baoyuan Liu for her M.S. degree which she received from the same institution in 2010. In her research project here in Kentucky, she investigates the impact of land use and rainfall characteristics on transport of surface-applied chemicals through soil under the supervision of Dr. Ole Wendroth. In her field experiments, Yang successfully applies new scale-dependent experimental approaches to address effects of soil spatial variability underlying the transport processes for different rainfall regimes. She has been presenting her work at national and international conferences, and her first article entitled “Field-Scale Bromide Leaching as Affected by Land Use and Rain Characteristics” has been accepted for publication in Soil Science Society of America Journal. She is an outstanding asset to the Soil Physics program and continues the line of many great Peaslee Award winners in our department.

Doyle Peaslee was a long-time member of the Agronomy faculty and this award was established by his family in his memory. The basis for the award is: high GRE scores, good grades, research strength, and potential for “contributions to US agriculture. “ The award consists of a small honorarium and an engraved plate with the student’s name posted in the department.