NDSU plant sciences graduate students Dulan Samarappuli and Alfredo Aponte each received a $1,000 Graduate Student Award from the North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference to attend the organization’s 43rd annual meeting in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, in July. They both will present their research results during the conference.

Samarappuli's presentation is titled "Intercropping Corn and Forage Sorghum for Hay Production in North Dakota." The title of Aponte's presentation is "Alfalfa-grass Mixtures Performance for Forage/Biomass Production in North Dakota." Their graduate program adviser is Marisol Berti, forages and biomass production project leader and associate professor of plant sciences.

The North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference established a travel grant program for graduate students giving oral or poster presentations at the annual meeting. According to spokesperson Jenna Knoblauch, the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation funds the grants through a sponsorship. Award recipients are selected based on the originality and relevance of the research presentation to alfalfa or forage improvement.

The conference promotes the development of improved alfalfa cultivars and management practices through education, communication and professional development of research scientists, educators and commercial representatives in North America and around the world.” To learn more about the organization, visit www.naaic.org.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.