UMass turfgrass science professor receives first NTEP Distinguished Award

Scott Ebdon (right) receives the NTEP Distinguished Service Award. (Photo: NTEP)

Scott Ebdon, Ph.D., professor of turfgrass science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, received its first distinguished service award from the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) at the Crop Science of America annual conference.

The distinguished service award recognizes individuals who made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of the turfgrass industry through cooperation with, or support of the NTEP.

Mike Richardson, University of Arkansas, nominated Ebdon for the award, noting his role as principal investigator and evaluator of 24 NTEP trials during his career. Richardson said Ebdon has been instrumental in evaluating traffic tolerance on many of those trials, as well as serving on advisory committees for multiple trials.

Ebdon was also a key contributor as an advisory committee member and evaluator for two NTEP water use trials under rainout shelters. Ebdon is a recognized expert on how grasses utilize water and in understanding drought tolerance mechanisms. His many research articles and presentations on the subject include two comprehensive review articles he recently co-authored and published in Crop Science.

Richardson noted that Ebdon’s greatest contribution to NTEP is his efforts to improve NTEP’s statistical analysis procedures.

In addition, Ebdon has been instrumental in his commitment to the NTEP database and the publicly available Turfgrass Trial Explorer search engine. Ebdon also served on the NTEP Policy Committee as the Northeast representative for three terms.