US (MI): Top distinction for reduced water use in plant production
Perry would bring Fernandez along with him to informational meetings all over the U.S. Those researcher-grower gatherings gave Fernandez an opportunity to meet some of the biggest names in horticulture, providing him a definite leg up.
“By the time I finished my Ph.D., I knew a lot of people working in fruit production across the country,” Fernandez said. “It was extremely good for my professional development. Most of my peers didn’t have a mechanism like that to meet so many people in academia or the industry.”
Today, some 22 years later, Fernandez – now an MSU professor of horticulture – is spearheading his own multistate research project, NC-1186, through the same group – the Experiment Station Committee on Organization and Policy (ESCOP).
MSU Professor Tom Fernandez (middle) with graduate student Damon Abdi (left) and MSU Professor Emeritus Ron Perry.
Fernandez is focused on improving water quality and water management in ornamental crop production – an industry nearly 100 percent reliant on irrigation. He’s experiencing firsthand the benefits of this type of cross-country research collaboration from a development perspective.
“It’s been very good for everybody’s growth, not just junior faculty starting out – but mine as well,” he said. “Since our meetings vary across the country in large ornamental plant production states, we’ve taken advantage of the group’s expertise to hold grower seminars in conjunction with our project meetings. We’ve done that in Michigan, North Carolina and next year, in northern California. We also get to visit the best growers in these regions and learn from their successes and develop research to help solve their problems.”
The overarching intent is to provide a mechanism for scientists interested in water quality and water management issues to team up, work together and specifically create research projects around the main topic area.
Since launching in 2011, the group consists of 31 members from 22 institutions and has garnered over $21.5 million in grants. The project has been so successful that it was named the 2017 winner of the Experiment Station Section Excellence in Multistate Research Award.
Coincidentally, that honor comes just two years after Perry earned the same ESCOP award for the rootstock research he introduced to Fernandez at the start of his career.
Perry served 20 years as a technical representative in NC-140 for Michigan and since 2012, as the administrative adviser for the North Central Research Association. Both projects have been extremely impactful on each of the respective industries – fruit production and ornamental plants.
“I think these two elite awards speak to MSU’s ability to really and truly cross-collaborate, not only within our university but with other academic institutions as well,” said Doug Buhler, director of MSU’s experiment stations now called MSU AgBioResearch. “This doesn’t happen everywhere and we’re proud to see our researchers paving the way as leaders of such impactful multidisciplinary work.”
Perry said Fernandez was one of his brightest, most focused and resourceful graduate students. Fernandez administered Perry’s MSU Fruit Schools, and he joined him at the NC-140 annual meetings and collaborated with one of the regional project cooperators as a part of explaining the essence of rootstock differences when it came to water uptake physiological stress.
The duo also worked with Dave Ferree from Ohio State University on a similar trial, attempting to quantify root mass distribution in two locations to associate with rootstock genetics as affected by soil characteristic differences. He published the results for this work and other research related to his Ph.D.
“Tom, in essence, cut his teeth in learning about the value of multistate research projects as he took advantage of the organizational set up even for his Ph.D. research project in 1991,” said Perry.
Read more at Michigan State University (Holly Whetstone)