Dr. Fred Cubbage Honored with 2022 Jackson Rigney International Service Award

The Jackson Rigney International Service Award recognizes the distinguished contributions of a faculty or staff member for the promotion of international understanding and service to the university and/or to the international community over the course of their career. The award honors the late Dr. Rigney, an agronomist who served NC State for 40 years bringing a global perspective to his life and work which serves as a model for those who seek to promote international education. In 2022, Dr. Fred Cubbage was selected out of three applications. 

You can watch a recording of the awards ceremony here.

2022 Jackson Rigney International Service Award: Recipient

• Dr. Fred Cubbage
  • Professor, Forestry and Environmental Resources
  • College of Natural Resources

Dr. Cubbage joined the NC State faculty as Professor and Head of the Department of Forestry in 1994. Over his career at NC State, Dr. Cubbage has developed a very broad-based global research and advising program in forest economics, silvopasture systems, and forest policy. His research, teaching and service have fostered an extensive appreciation of our programs, faculty, and expertise at NC State University across many countries and universities around the globe. While Department Head from 1994-2004, Dr. Cubbage was active internationally, including attending ten years of the Central America and Mexico Coniferous Resources Cooperative annual meetings in a different country every year. Dr.Cubbage was also a Fulbright Lecturing/Research Environmental Scholar in Argentina and Uruguay in 2004, and has maintained deep and enduring research interactions with colleagues both there and throughout Latin America. His research program on global forest economics has substantially expanded in the 15 years since his Fulbright exchange. It has involved cooperation with more than 20 individuals from countries around the world. Dr. Cubbage has served as a lecturer, Ph.D. advisor, and graduate committee member in countries across Latin America, including Brazil, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, Argentina, and Uruguay Argentina and Uruguay. He has interacted with more than 20 international graduate students and visiting scholars and more than 80 co-authors on at least 40 international publications in the last decade, based on a plethora of subjects, visits, and interactions.

2022 Jackson Rigney International Service Award: Finalists

• Dr. Abhinav Gupta
  • Director, Center for Nuclear Energy Facilities and Structures (CNEFS) and Professor in CCEE
  • Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
  • College of Engineering

Dr. Gupta’s research focus is on developing artificial intelligence-guided approaches to assess the risks and vulnerabilities of nuclear power plants that are subject to external natural hazards such as earthquakes and floods. He has been responsible for more than $14 million in total funding from U.S. and international organizations over the past 6 years. His international research collaborations have provided unique opportunities for NC State graduate and undergraduate students who have been able to work directly with international experts and gain an understanding of the technical problems that are faced by engineers around the world.

• Dr. William Hoffmann
  • Professor and University Faculty Scholar
  • Plant and Microbial Biology
  • College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Dr. Hoffmann has been working internationally for the past 32 years and has been centered on tropical forest and savanna ecosystems in Brazil. However, more recently he has organized multi-national teams that work to understand savanna ecosystems in a global context and highlight the urgent need to protect and manage these ecosystems for the good of the planet. Dr. Hoffmann’s research focuses on understanding mechanisms of large-scale vegetation shifts resulting from climate change and other human influences. He has created a strong network of collaborators in Brazil and throughout the world to potentiate the success and impact of his research program to benefit the NC State community.