February 15, 2023
Elizabeth Guertal awarded Presidential Award of the Crop Science Society of America
Elizabeth "Beth" Guertal, the project director of the Center of Excellence on Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change in the Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab, or SIIL, at Kansas State University, has been awarded the Presidential Award of the Crop Science Society of America, or CSSA, at the organization's 2022 annual meeting held in Baltimore, Maryland.
"This award is a true recognition of the hard work over many years and leadership of Dr. Guertal to CSSA," said Vara Prasad, director of the Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab, university distinguished professor, and R.O. Kruse Professor of Agriculture at K-State. "I am happy that she is part of the SIIL family and supporting our education, research and outreach activities."
Guertal has been highly involved in the society and is a past president of the organization from January 2020 through December 2020. In 2021, Guertal was awarded the Fred V. Grau Turfgrass Science Award.
Prior to being the project director of Center of Excellence on Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change with the SIIL, Guertal was employed at Auburn University, where she worked for 28 years as a faculty member in the department of crop, soil and environmental sciences, and where she also served as a Rowe Endowed Professor. Guertal received her bachelor's and master's degrees from The Ohio State University and her doctorate from Oklahoma State University. Her research program focuses on soil fertility issues in turfgrass management.
Guertal served as the editor-in-chief for agronomy publications through the American Society of Agronomy, a technical editor for Crop Science, and an associate editor for the Soil Science Society of America Journal, Crop Science and Agronomy Journal. She is a past chair of division C-5, Turfgrass Management, CSSA, a Fulbright Fellow and a fellow of the Crop Science Society of America, Soil Science Society of America and American Society of Agronomy.
The Crop Science Society of America, founded in 1956, is a progressive international scientific society with more than 4,000 members. The society fosters the vision to improve the world through crop science with its members dedicated to discovering and applying plant science solutions to improve the human condition and protect the planet. Crop science is highly integrative and employs the disciplines of conventional plant breeding, plant physiology and cropping system sciences to develop and improve varieties of agronomic, turfgrass and forage crops to produce feed, fiber, food and fuel.