by Fran tenBensel Benne | Agronomy and Horticulture Communications Specialist
Four faculty members from the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture received promotions and/or tenure in 2025. They are among 103 University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty to be honored this year.
Christian Elowsky was promoted to associate professor of practice. He received a Bachelor of Science in horticulture, a Master of Science in biology, and a doctorate in natural resource sciences, specializing in applied ecology from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Elowsky joined the department faculty as an assistant professor of practice in 2016 with a 60% teaching appointment. The other 40% of his appointment was based in the Morrison Microscopy Core Research Facility at the Beadle Center. Elowsky moved to a 100% teaching appointment in 2019 and currently teaches undergraduates in Plant Science, Landscape and the Environment, Botany, and Fundamentals of Biology I. He teaches Plant Anatomy to undergraduate and graduate students.
Elowsky also serves as a New Student Enrollment adviser and is a student adviser for the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture’s plant biology major. He helped create and advises the university’s Plant Biology Club.
Javed Iqbal was promoted to associate professor and granted tenure. He received a Bachelor of Science in soil science and a master’s degree in soil science, with a focus on soil microbiology and biochemistry, from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. He earned a doctorate in soil science from Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, China.
Iqbal joined the department faculty as an assistant professor and nutrient management and water quality specialist in 2019. He has a 40% research and 60% extension appointment. Iqbal works to improve fertilizer-use practices in cropping systems in Nebraska, which can help growers optimize fertilizer use, improve nutrient use efficiency, and increase crop production and farm profitability while protecting air and water quality.
Chris Proctor was promoted to extension educator. He received a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in crop science from Washington State University and a doctorate in agronomy from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Proctor joined the department faculty as an assistant extension educator in weed management in 2015. He was promoted to associate extension educator in 2019. His primary focus has been herbicide-resistant weeds in Nebraska, where he helps producers develop effective resistance management programs, utilizing tools such as cover crops and smart-sprayer technologies.
Starting in 2023, he has helped lead the Nebraska TAPS program, a farm management competition focused on profitability and input use efficiency. The program has expanded from North Platte to include a location at Mead, providing a low-risk platform for farmers and others across agriculture to test new practices and technologies in a co-learning environment.
Proctor also coached the university’s Weed Science Team from 2015 to 2024.
Becky Young was promoted to associate professor of practice. She received a Bachelor of Science in geography from the University of Wisconsin–Platteville. She earned a Master of Science in natural resource science and a doctorate in natural resource science with a specialization in soil science from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Young joined the department faculty as an assistant professor of practice of soil science in 2018. Young has lectured at Nebraska since earning her doctorate in 2015. First, within the School of Natural Resources for the Soil Evaluation and Great Plains Field Pedology courses and in the Program of Geography for the Elements of Physical Geography and Geography Field Tour courses.
With a 100% teaching appointment, she currently teaches resident and online courses including Soil Resources, Soil Evaluation and Advanced Soil Evaluation. She has also trained and mentored over 20 graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants for her classes. She led efforts to update and publish new versions of the laboratory manual for Soil Resources and has shared her teaching success through the publication of pedagogical research, citing four peer-reviewed journal articles from her time at Nebraska.
Young co-developed and led Geography 497 Geography Field Tour to Iceland in 2023 and 2025, Agricultural Sciences 310 Rwanda: Experiential Agriculture and Natural Resources in 2024, and Tropical Agroecosystems of Costa Rica in 2025. She also co-coaches the university’s Soil Judging Team.
Go here for a complete list of all University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty receiving promotion and/or tenure in 2025.
More details at: https://http://go.unl.edu/itjz