Peter Dernoeden, Ph.D., turfgrass science professor at the University of Maryland, has been selected to receive the 2012 Golf Course Superintendents Association of America Col. John Morley Distinguished Service Award.
Dernoeden will be acknowledged at the 2012 GCSAA Education Conference during Celebrate GCSAA! presented in partnership with Syngenta, Feb. 28. The conference (Feb. 27-March 2) will be held in conjunction with the Golf Industry Show (Feb. 29-March 1) at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas.
“Dr. Dernoeden is most deserving of the Col. John Morley Distinguished Service Award,” said GCSAA President Robert M. Randquist, CGCS. “He has provided vital research, continuing education, and steadfast support for golf course superintendents for more than three decades. His legacy continues to grow as the dozens of graduate students he has mentored include several future leaders in our industry.”
Dernoeden has been a fixture at the University of Maryland for 31 years and his teaching, research and extension has benefited superintendents throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Well respected in both plant pathology and weed control, he discovered and identified take-all patch and bentgrass deadspot disease. His work with gray leaf spot in the mid-1990s laid the foundation for managing perennial ryegrass in the transition zone, while his work with herbicides proved selective control of annual bluegrass in ryegrass fairways was possible. Dernoeden also pioneered the use of fine leaf fescues for low-maintenance areas.
Dernoeden is a longtime researcher of crabgrass and originated split applications of pre- and post-emergent approaches. He also has continued to focus on cultural controls, degree-day modeling and taxonomy for dollar spot, brown patch and Pythium throughout his career.
A longtime presenter at the GCSAA Education Conference, Dernoeden wrote a book under the same title as one of his most popular seminars, “Creeping Bentgrass Management.” He has published nearly 100 scientific journal articles and also is co-author of both books “The Compendium of Turfgrass Diseases” and “Managing Turfgrass Pests.”
Dernoeden has always made time to make on-site visits to assist superintendents, as well as analyze samples. He is a member of GCSAA’s Mid-Atlantic and Eastern Shore chapters and he organizes the winter turf conferences and summer field days for the Maryland Turfgrass Council. Dernoeden is a Fellow in both the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America.
Dernoeden earned a bachelor’s degree in horticulture from Colorado State University in 1970 and then served in the U.S. Army from 1970-73. Afterwards, he earned a master’s degree in turfgrass science from Colorado State in 1976 and a Ph.D. in plant pathology from the University of Rhode Island in 1980.
The GCSAA Board of Directors selects the winners from nominations submitted by affiliated chapters and/or association members. The award is given to individuals who have made an outstanding, substantive and enduring contribution to the advancement of the golf course superintendent profession. The award was renamed in 2009 in honor of Col. Morley, GCSAA’s founder and first president. He was the first to earn the Distinguished Service Award in 1932, and received it again in 1940.