and now Jessica Mader ’12 is working with Dr. Tom Shahady, associate professor of en- vironmental science, to make aquaponics a viable moneymaker for Lynchburg Grows. During the fall they stocked 500 channel


catfish in three concrete beds. The four-inch fish quickly made themselves at home. Dr. Shahady said the hope is that Lynchburg Grows will be able to sell the catfish to local restaurants after they’ve done the work of providing fertilizer for the plants above them via a circulating water system. “This is a work in progress,” he said.


A rose by any other name


One of the other lc projects that has Van Ness excited is the research on roses being done by Dr. Nancy Cowden and Dr. Priscilla Gannicott with their students. “We hope to be the first people in the country to put out a rose fragrance scale,” Van Ness said. Dr. Cowden, associate professor of biology,


and Dr. Gannicott, professor of chemistry, have taken their interest in isolating fragrance compounds in native orchids and applied it to the Schenkel roses. “Unlocking the secrets of the fragrance


produced by roses is kind of like being a detective — one of my favorite ‘ah-ha’ mo- ments in the lab occurred when confirmation of a peppery fragrance we associated with


“Fire and Ice” (a Schenkel rose) turned out to be mostly piperidine (a major compound in


28 LC MAGAZINE Spring 2012


black pepper),” Dr. Gannicott said. Dr. Cowden said that the perfume industry


still relies primarily on “professional noses” to create the fragrances they want, but noted it would be easier to isolate and replicate the compounds in the laboratory. Such technology is the basis for all artificial flavorings and generic drugs, she explained, but it is rarely applied to botany. Students have benefitted from that tech-


nology. DeAnne Moore ’11 got her current job analyzing personal care products at Tri- Tech Laboratories in Lynchburg as a result of doing the rose work, Dr. Cowden said, while James McDaniel ’12 is likely headed for a doctorate at the University of Wisconsin. He was one of only twelve students nation- wide invited to a graduate school weekend in the fall — at least partially because of his research on roses. “It has been really neat to look at eight va-


rieties and see all the differences,” James said, adding that dissimilar compounds show up depending on the temperature. For example, when it’s cold, the plant wastes no energy trying to attract pollinators. “I’ve learned a lot about how adaptive plants are.”


Hooked on vegetables


Pat Price ’95, ’05 M.Ed., interim director of lc’s Center for Community Development and Social Justice (ccdsj), was among lc’s first visitors to Lynchburg Grows. She told


the non-profit about the work of the ccdsj in inner-city neighborhoods and introduced Lynchburg Grows to local leaders who were ccdsj partners. These initial introductions resulted in


ongoing relationships between Lynchburg Grows and Jubilee Family Development Center, Lynchburg City Schools, neighbor- hood councils throughout the city, and churches, Price said. The ccdsj’s Young Champions program at the city schools’ alternative school was another great fit. “The kids loved it and became more inter-


ested in science than they could have ever imagined,” she said. “They grafted roses, grew vegetables, learned about aquaponics, and fed the animals.” The relationship with Lynchburg Grows


also helps lc’s experiential education initia- tives with community-based research projects and academic presentations all over the coun- try by lc faculty, staff, and students. Taylor Thompson ’14 is a Bonner Leader


working at Lynchburg Grows two to three times a week “bagging, picking, and shovel- ing,” or doing anything else that’s needed, he said. “I got to plant roses one time. That was cool.” Beverly Hoath ’12 did an internship at


Lynchburg Grows in the fall and she soon learned that growing organically can be time- consuming. “I spent about four hours a day hand-squishing squash bugs,” she said. Bev got interested in growing food after she be- came an environmental science major. “I


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