MSU Professor Wins National Award For Weed Research

BOZEMAN - In recognition of his contributions to society's understanding of weeds and weed control, a Montana State University researcher has won a national award from the Weed Science Society of America.

Bruce Maxwell, professor in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences in MSU's College of Agriculture, received the Outstanding Research Award at the organization's annual meeting in New Orleans in February.

"It's a nice honor," said Maxwell, who has been a member of WSSA since he was a graduate student in the '80s.

According to Tracy Sterling, head of the land resources and environmental sciences department, Maxwell is "an outstanding scholar, innovator and educator. He's well known nationally and internationally for redefining how we think about the ecology of invasive plant species and how they spread across the landscape.

"Even more impressively, he has trained dozens of students who now apply these modeling approaches to improve the management of the nation's crops, range and wildlands," Sterling added.

Maxwell's recent research publications span a range of topics, including strategies for managing a common herbicide-resistant weed, findings about how cheatgrass takes hold on the landscape and methods of using GIS to estimate crop yield. Other recent studies have focused on the invasion of pines in New Zealand and the Patagonia region of South America.

Maxwell has published more than 100 scientific peer reviewed journal articles and 13 invited book chapters, was lead author for the agriculture portion of the Montana Climate Assessment and serves as the co-director of the Montana Institute on Ecosystems, He played a key role in creating the interdisciplinary sustainable food and bioenergy systems undergraduate degree program at MSU.

In previous years, Maxwell won the WSSA awards for outstanding teaching, outstanding graduate studies, outstanding paper in the journal Invasive Plant Science and Management and outstanding paper in the journal Weed Technology. He has chaired and been a member of numerous agricultural and ecological research grant review panels and has been a member of two National Academy of Science National Research Council Committees on Agriculture. He was a Fulbright Fellow in Argentina in 2007.

Maxwell came to MSU in 1992 from the University of Minnesota. He earned a doctorate in crop science and forest ecology from Oregon State University, a master's in agronomy from MSU in 1984 and a bachelor's in botany from MSU in 1977. Following his undergraduate studies, he spent two years with his wife in the Peace Corps in Micronesia and subsequently traveled around the world. He grew up in Hamilton.

The Weed Science Society of America is a nonprofit scientific society founded in 1956 to encourage the development of knowledge concerning weeds and their impact on the environment. WSSA promotes research, education and extension outreach activities related to weeds, provides science-based information to the public and policy makers, fosters awareness of weeds and their impact on managed and natural ecosystems, and promotes cooperation among weed science organizations across the nation and around the world.