January 25, 2021
COVID-19 UPDATE
For the most up to date information from West Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M University System about COVID-19, visit the University's COVID-19 Information Page.
Dr. Mingying Xiang /shaang/ joins the Agricultural Sciences Department from the University of California, Riverside, where she worked as a Postdoctoral researcher. She received a Ph.D. in Horticulture from Kansas State University. In Kansas, her research focused on reducing turfgrass management inputs. At WT, she is teaching Principles of Horticulture and Basic Turfgrass Culture. Her research focuses on water conservation in turfgrass and other landscape systems.
Welcome, Dr. Xiang!
Dr. Colton Atkins, comes to WT after finishing his Doctorate at Colorado State University. He currently serves as the Online Education Coordinator for the Department of Agricultural Sciences with responsibility of facilitating an online Master's in Agriculture, which is anticipated to begin Fall of 2021. His teaching schedule this semester includes two sections of Agricultural Statistics. In the future, he will be working with AgTech research, and hopes to start a new AgTech program for the department. Welcome, Dr. Atkins!
Dr. Jenna Funk received her DVM from Iowa State University in 2015. After a year in a private cow-calf practice in south-west Nebraska, she returned to Iowa State University to complete a beef cattle residency and Master’s degree in Veterinary Preventive Medicine. After residency, she moved to southern Ontario to join a private beef cattle practice with a focus in confined feedlot cattle operations. In January of 2021, she joins us at West Texas A&M University in the Veterinary Education, Research, & Outreach (VERO) program. Her veterinary focus includes feedlot production medicine, health record data analysis, and bovine respiratory disease diagnostics. 
Welcome, Dr. Funk!
WTAMU Earns Reserve Championship in Mountain West Meat Judging Contest
West Texas A&M University Meat Judging Team competed at the Mountain West Meat Judging Contest on January 17, 2021 at 307 Meat Company in Laramie, WY. They brought home the reserve championship title! Co-coach, Dr. Loni Lucherk, adds " Travis Tilton (Co-Coach) and I are proud to coach such a great group of students to a Reserve Championship at our first contest! It is a testament to their hard work and dedication to excellence to have deep individual success with a group of students who had very little background knowledge of meat before this process." The individual accomplishments were the best WT has ever seen in the history of the program, and, the highest number of alternates in the top 10.
12 Universities were present, and WTAMU placed 2nd by 4 points to Texas Tech in their first competition in 2021. Congratulations!
Thayne Slater
“Everyone who got to know Thayne was inspired by him and by the humble but fearless way that he lived. We all learned from Thayne, and our lives were enriched by knowing him.”
~ Dr. David Lust, Associate Professor of Animal Science
“No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking.”
~ Voltaire