Research News

At the end of a 35-year career with the University of Georgia, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Associate Dean for Extension Laura Perry Johnson reflects on the journey that has taken her from her home on the farm to a lifetime of helping farmers. Johnson, affectionately known as “LPJ,” recently shared some of the lessons she has learned from a lifetime in agricultural education.

At the University of Georgia Tifton campus, the new Tifton Integrative Precision Agriculture Research, Education and Demonstration Laboratory will be the first of its kind in the Southeast to provide state-of-the-art collaborative spaces, top-of-the-line autonomous equipment and job training for the next generation of agricultural leaders. The $3 million project will include a working lab, electronic labs and office spaces to increase collaboration among graduate students, scientists and industry.

Six University of Georgia faculty and staff members are being honored for their commitment to public service and outreach. These honorees have made significant career-spanning contributions to UGA’s public service mission through scholarship, service-learning opportunities for students and campus leadership. All have created a legacy of extraordinary impact through special projects and long-term achievements to propel a better quality of life for the people of Georgia.

Stanley Culpepper has dedicated the length of his career to supporting farmers in their mission to feed and clothe the world. For the past 25 years, Culpepper has been a weed science specialist for University of Georgia Cooperative Extension and a College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences faculty member. Recently his job has become increasingly complex as mounting challenges around the availability of pesticides — primarily herbicides — have taken center stage in agricultural production.

The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service have broken ground on a new state-of-the-art research facility housing the Southeast Watershed Research Laboratory and the Crop Genetics and Breeding Research Unit. the UGA Tifton campus, the research facility will include a new, 31,000-square-foot building housing university and ARS employees working on climate-smart agricultural research.

Ron Walcott, University of Georgia vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School, was first a doctoral student at the UGA Tifton campus. As a UGA administrator and professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, Walcott helps students and colleagues find their sense of place at the university and has a legacy of increasing diversity in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.