New textbook from Penn State professor examines sustainable turfgrass management

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 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.

Fidanza’s research focuses on turfgrass ecology, diseases and plant protection. In 2016, he created the Penn State Berks Center for the Agricultural Sciences and a Sustainable Environment, which conducts agriculture, horticulture, plant and soil ecology, rhizosphere microbiome and turfgrass science research, while also supporting teaching and outreach efforts on campus.

Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, based in Cambridge, U.K., said it reached out to Fidanza before the COVID-19 pandemic hit about writing a textbook that would be a part of its agricultural sciences series.

Fidanza said he enlisted the help of researchers in the field to write chapters for the book based on their areas of expertise. He also said he wanted to involve early-career scientists in contributing to the book “because they have the latest research,” and to give them a chance to be featured in a publication.