A professor of plant and soil sciences at Penn State Berks and former editor-in-chief of the International Turfgrass Society Research Journal, Mike Fidanza has received numerous awards for teaching and research.
Most recently, Fidanza served as the editor of “Achieving sustainable turfgrass management," a new textbook centered on implementing eco-friendly initiatives in maintaining turfgrass, published in January by Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing.
While attending Penn State University Park campus, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences and master’s degree in agronomy, Fidanza met Don Waddington, Penn State professor emeritus of soil science. Waddington told him about an opportunity to earn a doctoral degree in plant pathology at the University of Maryland. After working on a plant pathology project, Fidanza was hooked.
Fidanza’s research focuses on turfgrass ecology, diseases, and plant protection. He gravitated toward this area of study, he said, because it is not a highly researched field and the diseases that affect turfgrass are complex. In 2016, Fidanza created the Penn State Berks Center for the Agricultural Sciences and a Sustainable Environment (CASSE), which conducts agriculture, horticulture, plant and soil ecology, rhizosphere microbiome, and turfgrass science research, and supports teaching and outreach efforts on campus.
Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, based in Cambridge, U.K., reached out to Fidanza before the COVID-19 pandemic hit about writing a textbook that would be a part of its agricultural sciences series. The series highlights ways to implement sustainability initiatives into taking care of different crops.
Categories: Pennsylvania, Education