The Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics has three departmental awards that are given in the spring: The Hayes Phillips Award, which is given to an outstanding graduate student in the department; the Tabare Abadie Leadership and Excellence (TALE) Award, given to Applied Plant Sciences graduate students who exemplify exceptional leadership, dedication to service, and a commitment to academic and personal excellence; and the APG Distinguished Alumni Award, which is given to an outstanding alumni.
The Hayes Phillips Award began as the Hayes Award in 1974 and is now named after two distinguished faculty members in the department: H. K. Hayes, a faculty member from 1915 to 1952, and Ronald Phillips, a faculty member from 1968 to 2010. Each year, the award is given to an APG graduate student who has excelled in academics, research, teaching, leadership and service.
The Outstanding Alumni Award began in 2021, and in 2024, the department expanded the award by giving two annual Outstanding Alumni Awards: one for an outstanding alumnus in industry and one in academia.
Here are the award winners from over the years.
Hayes Phillips Award
1974 William E. Kuhn
1975 Sheldon E. Blank
1976 Donn Cummings
1977 Steve R. Simmons
1978 Donald R. Viands
1979 Thomas J. McCoy
1980 James E. Miller
1981 Charlotte V. Eberlein
1982 Steve A. Thompson
1983 Josephine Heindl Coterman
1984 Oran B. Hesterman
1985 Debra Metzger Lee
1986 Patrick M. Hayes
1987 Virginia M. Peschke
1988 Beth M. Nelson (Schreiber)
1989 Peggy Egli
1990 Lori Marshall
1991 Brent W. Delzer
1992 Shawn M. Kaeppler
1993 Todd L. Krone
1994 Sandra C. Milach
1995 Philip M. Schwab
1996 Blair L. Waldron
1997 Jonathan Shaver
1998 Michael Olsen
1999 Joann Mudge
2000 Cristine Handel
2001 Lee DeHaan
2002 Juan Diaz
2003 Jianming Yu
2004 Lynn Litterer
2005 Martin Arbelbide
2006 Jennifer Jacobs
2007 Xiuling Zhang
2008 Haiyan Jia
2009 Robenson Lorenzana
2010 Toi J. Tsilo
2011 Jon Massman
2012 Emily Combs
2013 Michael Kantar
2014 Ana Poets (Gonzales)
2016 James Eckberg
2016 Prabin Bajgain
2017 Jared Goplen
2018 Jeffrey Neyhart
2019 Kayla Altendorf
2020 Austen Dobbels
2021 John Hill Price
2022 Rafael Della Coletta
2023 Michael Burns
2024 Hannah Stoll
2025 Mary Jane (Mjay) Espina
2026 Navjot Singh
Outstanding Alumni Award
2021 Ronald L. Phillips
2022 Geoff Graham
2023 Donn Cummings
2024 Roberto Tuberosa (academic) and Tabara Abadie (industry)
2025 Jim Luby (academic) and Marc Albertsen (industry)
2026 Pete Dotray (academic) and Lee Dehaan and Sandra Milach (industry)
TALE Award
2026 Navjot Singh