Main Content
School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University
March 19, 2026
Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health Building, Room 101
8:30 – 9:00 AM Registration
9:00 – 9:10 AM Welcome – Laura Lawson (Executive Dean of Agriculture and Natural Resources)
9:10 – 10:20 AM SESSION I: Abiotic Stress & Warm-Season Turfgrasses (Moderator: Bingru Huang)
9:10 – 9:30 AM Stephanie Rossi (Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers University)
Imaging-Based Phenotyping for Early Detection of Combined Heat-Drought
Stress in Creeping Bentgrass
9:30 – 9:50 AM Mark Labarge (Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers University) Establishment
and Maintenance of Bermudagrass and Zoysiagrass Fairways in New Jersey
9:50 – 10:20 AM Susana Milla Lewis (Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, North Carolina State
University) Enhancing Drought Resistance in Warm-Season Turfgrasses:
Fourteen Years of Progress Through a Multistate Collaborative Project Across
the Southern United States
10:20 – 10:50 AM Discussion and Break
10:50 – 11:50 AM SESSION II: Remote Sensing & Winter Survival (Moderator: Stacy Bonos)
10:50 – 11:10 AM Juan Gonzalez (Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers University) High-Volume
Turfgrass Monitoring Using Drones
11:10 – 11:50 AM KEYNOTE: Eric Watkins (Department of Horticultural Science, University of
Minnesota) Investigating New Strategies for Turfgrass Survival in a Changing
Winter Climate”
11:50 – 1:10 PM Lunch Break and Poster Session
1:10 – 2:10 PM SESSION III: Pattwell Award, Fungicide Resistance, & Plant Protection
Innovation (Moderator: Ming Yi Chou)
1:10 – 1:30 PM Ryan Earp (Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers University) Bandon Dunes:
Hosting the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship
1:30 – 1:50 PM Leandro Lopes da Silva (Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers University) Ivesti
gating the Mechanisms of Succinate Dehydrogenase Inhibitor (SDHI) Fungicides
`Resistance in Dollar spot Causal Agent Clarireedia jacksonii
1:50 – 2:20 PM Lisa Beirn (Syngenta) The Evolution of Plant Protection: A Quarter Century of
Innovation and Transformation
2:20 – 2:40 PM Discussion and Break
2:40 – 3:50 PM SESSION IV: Poa annua, Beneficial Nematodes, & Growth Regulation
(Moderator: Matt Elmore)
2:40 – 3:10 PM James Brosnan (Department of Plant Sciences: Turfgrass Science and
Management, University of Tennessee) Solutions to an Ever-Changing Problem:
Poa Control in Turfgrass
3:10 – 3:30 PM Matthew Brown (Department of Entomology, Rutgers University) Optimizing
Performance of Entomopathogenic Nematodes in Turfgrass by Exploiting
Interaction with Fungicides, Silicon Fertilization and Plant Hosts
3:30 – 3:50 PM Katie Diehl Tuck (Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers University) Effects of
Plant Growth Regulators on Goosegrass and Cool-Season Turfgrasses
3:50 – 4:00 PM Discussion Session and Closing Remarks
4:00 PM Poster Session