The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and the American Farm Bureau Federation are honored to have awarded the achievements of the 2010 $25,000 Distinguished Agriscience Scientist's Award Columbus Scholar:

Patricia L. Kennedy, Ph.D.

Professor
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University
Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center
Union, Oregon

Professor Patricia Kennedy has a unique faculty position; she is one of the few wildlife biology faculty at a land grant institution who is stationed at an Agricultural Experiment Station. She represents the future of these stations where research into agricultural sustainability requires both a commodity and ecological perspective.

When Oregon State University (OSU) hired Dr. Kennedy in 2002, she was a tenured faculty member in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Biology at Colorado State University. She was renowned for her practical and proactive approach to endangered species management, with research aimed at reducing the need to list wildlife as threatened or endangered. OSU hired her to develop a research program that would provide scientific information to address the questions arising from the national debate on the sustainability of livestock grazing. Her position was the result of additional money allocated to OSU from the State legislature after the Oregon Cattlemen's Association lobbied the legislature to fund a research ecologist that could evaluate the contentious issues they faced with rigorous science. In her current position, she directs a variety of collaborative investigations on management alternatives that promote sustainable livestock and crop production in the inter-mountain west.

Dr. Kennedy received a B.A. in Biology from Colorado College, M.S. in Zoology from the University of Idaho and Ph.D. in Biology/Ecology from Utah State University.

The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and the American Farm Bureau Federation are honored to have awarded the achievements of the 2010 $25,000 Distinguished Agriscience Scientist's Award Columbus Scholar:

Thomas J. Jackson, Ph.D.

Research Hydrologist
USDA, Agricultural Reserve Service
Hydrology and Remote Sensing Lab
Beltsville, Maryland

Dr. Thomas Jackson's research involves the application and development of remote sensing technology in hydrology and agriculture, primarily microwave measurement of soil moisture.

This research has resulted in over 300 scientific publications. Dr. Jackson has established himself as an international expert in the field of remote sensing in hydrology, in particular as the world leader in soil moisture measurement, as evidenced by invited international presentations, contributions to manuals, and invited journal papers on this topic. Based on his scientific expertise, he is often invited to participate on panels for NASA, NOAA and foreign institutions.

He has been a member of the science teams of numerous U.S. as well as international satellite projects. The focus of his current research is the development of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite, scheduled for 2014. He is the SMAP science team lead for calibration and validation.

Dr. Jackson's contributions and leadership in research have been recognized by Fellow Awards from four scientific societies, and he was selected as the ARS Distinguished Senior Scientist. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Maryland in Civil Engineering in 1976 and joined ARS in 1977.