UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has honored nine of its graduates with 2007 Outstanding Alumni Awards. The awards recognize alumni for their achievements and provide opportunities for recipients to interact with the college's faculty, students and other alumni.

Named Outstanding Alumni were Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman of Tucson, Ariz.; Leslie N. Firth of Mercer; Ernest U. Gingrich of Harrisburg; John C. "Jack" Good of Chambersburg; Stephen S. Miller of Robesonia; and Lee C. Schisler of State College.

Selected as Outstanding Recent Alumni were Vivian P. Chang of Cave Springs, Ark.; Candace C. Croney of Corvallis, Ore.; and Steven B. Taylor of Boise, Idaho.

Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from Penn State in 1973 and 1980, respectively. She is research leader and director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson and an adjunct professor of entomology at the University of Arizona. Among DeGrandi-Hoffman's significant contributions to the beekeeping industry is her identification of a potent miticide that is a natural compound produced by worker bees. The compound has been patented and a delivery system for its release in honey bee colonies is under development.

Leslie Firth, who also was named the 2004 Penn State Animal Science Distinguished Alumnus, served for 37 years as a senior extension agent and county extension director for Penn State Cooperative Extension in Mercer County. He is responsible for the development of the Mercer County 4-H Park, which encompasses 13 acres, 11 buildings, playground equipment and a horse show ring and is used more than 180 days each year. Firth, who received his bachelor's degree in 1958 and master's degree in 1961, also pioneered the Pennsylvania Dairy Management and Profitability Program from 1990 to 1996 and worked as an extension agricultural economist in Poland on a Polish-American extension project.

Ernest Gingrich, who received his bachelor's degree in 1953 and MBA in 1981, has been an active member of the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers for 38 years and was named Engineer of the Year in 2006. Although retired since 1995, he currently works part-time as a senior engineer for Light-Heigel & Associates inspecting construction projects, assisting in design of water supply systems, hydraulic structures and waterways, and conducting dam inspections. Prior to his retirement, Gingrich worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources for 15 years. His career was built on his professional expertise in hydrologic and hydraulic design, dam design, construction, supervision and inspection.

John C. "Jack" Good, senior vice president of Bartlett Tree Experts Co., graduated from Penn State with a bachelor's degree in forestry in 1941. Following graduation, Good served in the U.S. Army as an officer of the 10th Mountain Division (ski troops) and 8th Infantry Division in Europe during World War II. After combat duty in France, Belgium and Germany, he was wounded in the Battle of Huertgen Forest and retired in 1945 as a full lieutenant and company commander. Good has maintained an active connection to Penn State, serving on the School of Forest Resources Advisory Board for 12 years and lending guidance to the development of the urban forestry option within the forest science baccalaureate degree.

Stephen Miller, a part-time instructor at Penn State Berks from 1982 to 1994, has been an agricultural teacher and FFA advisor at Conrad Weiser High School in Robesonia for almost 30 years. After graduating from Moravian College with a bachelor's degree in history, government and social sciences, he received his master's degree in agricultural education from Penn State in 1983. Miller has co-chaired the AgriScience Fair contest at the state FFA convention for many years and also co-chaired the new state Food Science and Technology FFA contest that was held during summer 2007. He also has been co-instructor of the Plant Tissue Culture Elective Course in the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Agricultural Sciences held at University Park.

Lee Schisler, Penn State professor emeritus of plant pathology, is an internationally renowned researcher and educator who devoted his entire career to helping the mushroom industry. After receiving his bachelor's and master's degrees in botany from Penn State, Schisler worked as an agricultural chemicals researcher for the American Chemical Paint Co. in 1952. He served as a corporal in the U.S. Army Chemical Corps from 1952 to 1954 before returning to Penn State to earn his doctorate in botany and plant pathology. Schisler was director of Penn State's Mushroom Research Center from 1968 until 1988, and in 1974 and '75, he took a sabbatical leave to serve as an honorary visiting professor at the University of British Columbia.

Vivian Chang, international regional quality assurance manager for Tyson Foods, received her bachelor's degree from the Universidad Del Valle de Guatemala in 1997, before graduating from Penn State in 2001 with a master's degree in food science with an emphasis in food safety and microbiology. While pursuing her master's degree, Chang worked as a graduate research assistant at Penn State, where she also lectured for the Sanitation and Food Microbiology short courses. She presented her thesis results at the American Meat Science Association Reciprocal Meat Conference.

Candace Croney, associate professor of animal science at Oregon State University, was awarded the Outstanding New Professor Award from the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State in 2003. That same year, she was also a recipient of the Humane Society of the United States Animals and Society Teaching Award. Croney earned her master's and doctoral degrees in animal sciences from Penn State after completing her undergraduate education at Cook College of Rutgers University. While a student at Penn State, Croney worked as a graduate research assistant for the Department of Dairy and Animal Science.

Steven Taylor, a licensed professional engineer, is employed by Building Components of Idaho as vice president of operations. Taylor began working for Weyerhaeuser in 1996, after completion of his doctorate in engineering at Penn State. Taylor received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Penn State in 1985. Before returning to earn a minor in science, technology and society and a master's degree in civil engineering in 1992, Taylor worked as design supervisor/project engineer and development engineer for the Murus Company/Woodhouse in Mansfield, Pa.

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EDITORS: For more information, contact Naomi Knaub, director of alumni relations for the College of Agricultural Sciences, at (814) 867-1819 or by e-mail at nmk107@psu.edu.

Chuck Gill 814-863-2713 cdg5@psu.edu