West Virginia University’s Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences has announced its outstanding faculty for the 2003-04 academic year. Honorees are Harry Boone for excellence in teaching, Stacy Gartin for excellence in service and Daniel Panaccione for excellence in research.

Boone, an assistant professor of agricultural and environmental education, was noted for his creation of new courses in the Davis College. Since joining the faculty in 2000, he has developed three: Statistical Applications in Agricultural Education, Program Development in Agricultural and Extension Education and a graduate colloquium. He collaborated in the development of a fourth course, Program Evaluation, and he consistently incorporates web-based materials into his curricula. Boone is advisor to 28 undergraduate and 15 graduate students and serves on 17 graduate committees. He teaches two on-line courses in Agricultural and Extension Education, part of a collaboration between WVU and North Carolina State University.

Gartin, a professor of agricultural and environmental education, is one of the leading organizers of the annual Career Development Events, annual skill tests for West Virginia FFA members. The event brings approximately 900 junior high and high school students to WVU ’s Morgantown campus each fall and allows them to demonstrate their skills in a wide range of disciplines including livestock judging, forestry, horticulture, entomology and landscape architecture. In 2003, Gartin began a three-year term on the National FFA Board of Consultants. He received the Outstanding Leadership Award from the American Association for Agricultural Education and was named one of the WVU Foundation Outstanding Teachers. Gartin serves on seven university, seven college, four division and four departmental committees. Davis College students have given him their Outstanding Advisor award three times, in 1998, 2002 and 2004.

Panaccione, an associate professor of mycology, conducts research on the molecular biology, biochemistry and ecological importance of endophytic fungi associated with grasses. In 2003, he published an article on ergot alkaloids in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. A second article on the subject was accepted for publication in Fungal Genetics and Biology. He is lead investigator on three ongoing projects on the fungi-grass relationship, and is collaborating on two others in nutritional biochemistry and environmental biocomplexity. Panaccione’s recent professional presentations have been to the Fourth International Symbiosis Society Congress in Nova Scotia and the Fungal Genetics Conference in California.

Faculty honored for teaching, research and service were selected by the Davis College’s Peer Review Committee. The trio will be recognized at the Davis College’s Honors Convocation April 2.