The GCSAA has named its 2008 Watson Fellowship Program winners. Gerald Miller, Yan Xu and Joseph Young each have been awarded $5,000 postgraduate grants.
The Watson Fellowship is funded by a partnership between The Toro Co. and The Environmental Institute for Golf. It is named after James R. Watson, Ph.D., a retired vice president for Toro who pioneered turfgrass research. The winners, students working toward master’s degrees and doctoral degrees, have been identified as promising future teachers and researchers in the field of golf course management. They also receive an all-expense paid trip to the 2009 GCSAA Education Conference (Feb. 2-7) and Golf Industry Show (Feb. 5-7) in New Orleans.
Miller, who is from Jacksonville, Fla., is working toward a doctorate degree in plant pathology at North Carolina State University. He holds a bachelor's degree in science from N.C. State and a master's in science from the University of Georgia. His master's thesis focused on the characterization of fungicide sensitivity in populations of the casual fungus of dollar spot in Georgia. Miller's dissertation aims to identify the fungi involved in fairy ring biology and determine the soil temperatures at which they are active and assess their sensitivity to fungicides and other management practices. His future career plans entail working as a turf pathologist within an academic setting in research, extension and teaching.
Xu, who is from Nanjing, China, and earned an undergraduate degree from Nanjing University, is working toward a doctorate degree in turfgrass stress physiology at Rutgers University in New Jersey. The goal of her dissertation is to explore the hormonal regulation of heat tolerance in creeping bentgrass. Part of her dissertation has already been published in the Journal of American Society for Horticulture Science, in which she compared a unique bentgrass species originating from geothermal areas in Yellowstone National Park, to heat-sensitive creeping bentgrass, examining what mechanisms could contribute to superior thermal tolerance. After graduation, Xu plans to become involved with some of the joint turfgrass management programs between American and Chinese universities.
Young, who hails from Gardendale, Ala., is working on a master's degree in turfgrass pathology at Mississippi State University. He holds an associate's degree from Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Mississippi and a bachelor's degree from Mississippi State. The topic of his thesis is to determine if isolates of the causal Colletotrichum cereale, an organism of anthracnose on turfgrass species and forage grasses, from Mississippi and Alabama exhibit fungicide resistance to fungicides azoxystrobin (AZ) and/or thiophanate-methyl (TM). Upon completion of his master's degree, Young plans to pursue a doctorate degree in turfgrass pathology.
Watson is a leading authority on turfgrasses and was vice president for customer relations and chief agronomist for Toro. The winner of the USGA Green Section Award in 1976 and the 1977 Agronomic Service Award by the American Society of Agronomy, Watson was named a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America in 1979. He also won the 1991 Harry Gill Memorial Award of the Sports Turf Managers Association and GCSAA's highest honor in 1995, the Old Tom Morris Award. Over the course of five decades at Toro, Watson conducted research on adaptability of species and strains of turfgrasses, fertilization practices, snow mold prevention techniques for the winter protection of turfgrasses, etc. He has authored more than 400 popular articles on turfgrass cultural practices and water conservation.