Mar 28, 2011

Wise named Fruit Man of the Year

The Michigan Pomesters recently named Michigan State University pest management researcher John Wise Fruit Man of the Year.

“He is a very detail orientated person, but can still keep the overall ‘big picture’ in sight,” said Amy Irish-Brown, a Michigan State University (MSU) Extension educator in western Michigan. “This attribute makes this person a great asset to the commercial apple industry, where details are important in the complex system of growing apples but the ‘big picture’ still needs to be considered for apples – the largest, by volume, fruit crop grown in Michigan.”

Wise is the research and Extension coordinator of MSU’s Trevor Nichols Research Complex (TNRC). His mission is to develop effective pest management strategies in cooperation with MSU researchers and serve as a source of Extension information for the Michigan fruit industry’s pest management decision-makers.

Wise’s primary research interest is to further understand the unique activity characteristics and performance boundaries of new insecticide chemistries on Michigan fruit insect pests.

Wise also serves as a field research director in the national IR-4 residue program, the primary avenue by which new reduced-risk pesticides are registered with the EPA for minor-use crops. In addition, Wise is developing a pest-scout training program to be run out of the newly established Angus J. Howitt IPM Training Room at TNRC.