Assistant Professor and Extension Weed Management Specialist Amit Jhala has been honored with the Distinguished Achievement Young Weed Scientist Award from the North Central Weed Science Society of America. This award recognizes outstanding contributions made by a young weed scientist in research and/or extension.
Jhala will receive the award at the 71st North Central Weed Science Society’s annual meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, Dec. 12-15.
Jhala has been with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln since 2012 with a split appointment between research and extension in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. His research program at the university is focused on the biology, gene flow, and management of herbicide-resistant weeds, through which he is specifically interested in pollen-mediated gene flow from herbicide-resistant crops and weeds.
Jhala is an early career scientist with 61 papers published/accepted in peer-reviewed journals. Additionally, he has published 11 book chapters. His paper published in Heredity (a journal of the Nature Publishing Group) about gene flow was not only recognized by the journal, but the paper led to a commentary published in the same issue of Heredity discussing the statistical methods used in the study to determine the minimum sample size needed to detect gene flow.
Jhala has graduated two M.S. students and a doctoral student at UNL, in addition to supervising two doctoral students and two M.S. students as a major adviser and serving as a committee member for four other graduate students.
He has developed a weed science extension and outreach program in the state of Nebraska that promotes a more sustainable corn and soybean production system by teaching the principles of safe and cost-effective weed management, primarily through the management of glyphosate-resistant weeds.
Jhala is a coordinator of the Crop Production Clinics. On average, 1,500 to 1,800 clientele attend CPCs across nine locations in Nebraska annually. He also organizes Corn and Soybean Weed Management Field Days and Herbicide-Resistant Weed Management Field Days. He serves on the Board of Directors for the North Central Weed Science Society as the chair of the Extension Section.
Contact:
Amit Jhala
Department of Agronomy and Horticulture
402-472-1534
Amit.Jhala@unl.edu
http://agronomy.unl.edu/jhalalab