Texas A&M AgriLife weed scientists earn national accolades
Dotray and Jugulam, along with students, stand out at Weed Science Society of America meeting
Two Texas A&M AgriLife weed scientists and professors in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, were among the honorees at the Weed Science Society of America, WSSA, and the Canadian Weed Science Society recent annual meeting.
The societies recognized outstanding contributors to key weed science initiatives and advancements, including Peter Dotray, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service weed specialist, Lubbock, and Mithila Jugulam, Ph.D., director of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Beaumont.
Additionally, Texas A&M students brought home recognition after competing in poster and presentation competitions during the annual conference.
Outstanding Extension Award winner
The Outstanding Extension Award was presented to Dotray, who also serves as the Rockwell Chair of Weed Science at Texas Tech University.
Dotray started his three-way appointment in Lubbock in 1993. He serves as an AgriLife Extension weed specialist in an area planted to 3.5 million acres of cotton and has provided over 950 expert presentations over the years. Additionally, he has secured $6 million in external support to conduct weed control research in several crops including cotton, peanut, grain sorghum, corn and sesame.
Dotray also teaches Texas Tech undergraduate and graduate students and has served as the major advisor or co-advisor to 50 graduate students and has served on 43 graduate committees.
He has served on many of the society’s committees as well as president of the American Peanut Research and Education Society, Southern Weed Science Society, American Society of Agronomy-Texas Chapter and the West Texas Agricultural Chemicals Institute. He is a Fellow of the American Peanut Research and Education Society and the Southern Weed Science Society.
Outstanding Teacher Award recipient
Jugulam, recognized with the Outstanding Teacher Award, assumed the role of center director for the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Beaumont and Eagle Lake in October 2024. In this capacity, she leads research and administrative efforts to advance innovation and sustainability in rice production systems.
Before this appointment, Jugulam served as a professor of weed physiology in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University. There, she developed and taught three graduate-level courses, earning high evaluations for their comprehensive and engaging content. She was recognized with the Kansas State University College of Agriculture Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award for her efforts.
Her internationally recognized research program has made significant strides in understanding the evolution and mechanisms of herbicide resistance in weeds and crops.
She has received several awards, including the WSSA Outstanding Research Award and the Fulbright Scholar Award. She is co-editor-in-chief of Pest Management Science and serves on the editorial boards of several international journals.
Weed science student competition winners
The following students were recognized at the event:
- Luke Schmitz: First place poster, master’s category.
- Megan Schill: First place poster, doctoral category.
- Ryan Hamberg: First place poster, doctoral category.
- Sarah Chu: Third place single slide talk, doctoral category.
- Kapil Chobhe: Third place poster, doctoral category.
