PULLMAN, Wash. — Jerry Glover, who earned three degrees at Washington State University from 1997 to 2001, is described as one of the “five crop researchers who could change the world,” in a news feature by Emma Marris in the current issue of Nature, the international weekly science journal.
Glover is an agroecologist at the Land Institute in Salina, Kan., a non-profit research and education organization that focuses on sustainable agriculture. He and collaborators around the world are attempting to breed perennial wheat, which would yield environmental benefits as well as grain.
Growing perennial wheat would require less fertilizer and fewer passes over the field by machinery. The longer and denser roots would help build the soil and prevent soil erosion, a problem with many annual cropping systems.
Glover earned a bachelor’s of science in soils science at WSU in 1997, a bachelor’s of arts in philosophy in 1998 and a doctorate in soil science in 2001.
“This is a tremendous honor for Jerry to be one of the five and says something about WSU’s College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences,” said John Reganold, Regents professor of soil science and agroecology. He was Glover’s graduate advisor.
About his former student, Reganold says in the article, “I don’t think he would take on a project that would not help feed the planet and also be good for the environoment.”
The article can be read online at http://www.nature.com/news/news-features/index.html.
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