COLLEGE STATION Jarrad Prasifka has been awarded the Perry L. Adkisson graduate assistantship in integrated pest management (IPM) at Texas A&M University.
The assistantship sponsors graduate training in support of IPM principles. Candidates must have a record of outstanding scholarship within the Department of Entomology and are expected to teach, as a teaching assistant, in the department.
Prasifka, a doctoral student within the department, is currently researching biological control programs in cotton.
Prasifka said, “Natural enemy conservation has been difficult to evaluate in Texas cotton because of the needed insecticide loads to combat the boll weevil. However, with the advance of eradication efforts, techniques to maximize the pest control benefits of indigenous natural enemies may be better evaluated and implemented.”
He believes natural enemy conservation holds promise as a method to increase the effectiveness of biological control in cotton.
Dr. Perry Adkisson was the chancellor of the Texas A&M System from 1986 until 1990, and during his long career at Texas A&M served as deputy chancellor, vice president for agricultural and renewable resources and head of the department of entomology.
His most noted work came in the field of IPM, which combines a variety of tactics such as cultural, biological and chemical controls, host plant resistance and crop monitoring to keep pests below crop-damaging levels.
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