Katie Black, senior manager of social media with University Communication and Marketing, holds a corn plant while donning the facsimile of a space suit — and braving 90-degree heat — for a recent photo shoot. The shoot was coordinated by Craig Chandler, UComm’s director of photography, as part of a story on Nebraska U’s efforts to lead the way in space agriculture.
As Chandler noted, the photo demanded contributions from a cadre of staff, faculty and students. Weeks before Black stepped into the suit, Chandler pitched the idea to (and got buy-in from) Yufeng Ge and Santosh Pitla, both faculty in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering. The Department of Agronomy and Horticulture’s James Schnable provided the corn seed, which Chandler said was “impossible to find in the stores this late in the year.” Pots, trays and soil came courtesy of Samantha Link, who oversees the Beadle Center’s greenhouses. And graduate student Amlan Balabantaray maneuvered the Flex-Ro, an autonomous planter backgrounding Black, around the Splinter Lab on East Campus.
“I am incredibly fortunate to have the trust of everyone on campus,” Chandler said, “when I try to create some of the photo ideas that look great in my head.”
Social media photos of the week
Did you know that University Communication offers an ever-expanding digital photo archive? Learn more about campus images and how to access them.
