President’s Message

Dear AOC members, colleagues, and friends,

Hope everything finds you well. It was great to meet with most of you at the 2023 AOC meeting and banquet! We would like to share some great news from AOC members who have made marvelous achievements and received distinguished honors in the past year.

In the 2023 AOC Annual Meeting and Banquet, Dr. Jun Zhu (Professor at University of Arkansas) was awarded with AOC Distinguished Research Award; and Dr. Zhou Zhang (Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) was awarded with AOC Early Career Award.

In the 2023 ASABE Meeting, Dr. Ying Chen (Professor and Associate Head at the University of Manitoba) was elected as ASABE Fellow, Dr. Heping Zhu (Agricultural Engineer & Lead Scientist at USDA ARS) was awarded with the Cyrus Hall McCormick – Jerome Increase Case Gold Medal, and Dr. Haibo Huang (Associate Professor at Virginia Tech) was awarded with the New Holland Young Researcher Award.

During the 2023 ASABE meeting, AOC organized or co-organized several global engagement events such as China Exchange Forum and Tri-community (Africa, China, and India) Symposium. We would like to appreciate each speaker for sharing the experience and knowledge on international collaborations or communications. At the China Exchange Forum, Dr. Karen Mancl (Professor at the Ohio State University) talked about the US and China leadership in mitigating climate change footprint of agricultural production; Dr. Yanbo Huang (Research Agricultural Engineer/Scientist at USDA ARS) shared the next-generation precision agricultural technologies through the cybernetic view; Dr. Changying Li (Professor/IFAS AI Administrative Coordinator at University of Florida) introduced the research and international collaboration on sensing and automation for phenomics and postharvest handling. At the Tri-community Symposium, Dr. Hongwei Xin (Dean of AgResearch and Director at the University of Tennessee) introduced the international collaboration and communication on climate smart animal production programs; and Dr. Roger Ruan (Professor and Director at the University of Minnesota) talked about sustainable food engineering technologies and international application

In the coming year, AOC new board will continue to work closely with all of you to serve our community as the strong bridge for collaborations and communications.

Best wishes,