The SAFES Institute is hosting a new seminar series during the Fall 2025 semester focusing on research opportunities at the Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension Center (SEAREC) and in the Lower Susquehanna watershed more broadly. The series will showcase work that many Penn State faculty are already doing at the SEAREC research farms and in the Lower Susquehanna and will present opportunities for additional faculty to get involved (i.e., to make use of the SEAREC research facilities, as well as to take advantage of existing relationships with farmers, landowners, and other stakeholders in southeast PA).
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Matt Royer, Associate Research Professor and Director of the Agriculture & Environment Center (AEC)
Research and Stakeholder Partnerships in the Lower Susquehanna
Time: 11:00-12:00 pm
Location: Food Science 342
Matt will give an overview of the partnerships with farmers and landowners that have been built through the AEC and will present opportunities to partner with the AEC on place-based research in the Lower Susquehanna watershed.
Recording: Research and Stakeholder Partnerships in the Lower Susquehanna
Matt's slides: Research and Stakeholder Partnerships in the Lower Susquehanna.pdf
Links and other resources:
- USGS - Monitoring Small Agricultural Watersheds to Motivate and Evaluate Conservation Actions
- Registration for Bay in the Balance - December 8-10, 2025
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Alyssa Collins, Associate Research Professor in Plant Pathology and Director of the Southeast Agricultural Research & Extension Center (SEAREC)
What's possible at SEAREC?
Time: 11:00-12:00 pm
Location: Food Science 342
Alyssa will present an overview of SEAREC's experimental farms, the types of projects Penn State faculty have ongoing, and opportunities to collaborate with SEAREC to advance your research program.
Recording: What's Possible at SEAREC
Alyssa's slides: What's Possible at SEAREC.pdf
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Heather Grab, Assistant Professor of Applied Systems Ecology
Big Data for Better Decisions: Using Technology to Support Agricultural Decision-Making
Time: 11:00-12:00 pm
Location: Food Science 342
Heather will share how her lab is integrating sensors and machine learning models to tackle real-world challenges in agriculture, highlighting research at SEAREC that is driving the development of innovative decision support tools for growers.
Recording: Big Data for Better Decisions
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Paul Esker, Professor of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology and Extension Specialist in Field and Forage Crops
Integrated Crop Disease Management for the Northeast Region
Time: 11:00-12:00 pm
Location: Food Science 342
Paul will discuss his team’s research, extension, and education efforts at SEAREC and how collaborations with the farm enhance integrated disease management and strengthen agricultural resilience across the region.
Recording: Integrated Crop Disease Management
Slides: Integrated Crop Disease Management.pdf
Articles referenced:
- Sowing uncertainty: What we do and don't know about the planting of pesticide-treated seed (Hitaj et al. 2020 in BioScience)
- Neonicotinoid seed treatments of soybean provide negligible benefits to US farmers (Mourtzinis et al. 2019 in Scientific Reports)
- A machine learning interpretation of the contribution of foliar fungicides to soybean yield in the north-central United States (Shah et al. 2021 in Scientific Reports)
Friday, November 7, 2025
James Mutunga, Assistant Professor of Biology (Penn State Harrisburg)
Integrating insecticide discovery and arthropod biology for resistance management in pests and vectors
Time: 1:30-2:30 pm
Location: Food Science 443
James will present an overview of how his previous work in developing and testing of resistance-breaking insecticides for vector management, is currently being scaled for selective pesticide design of important crop and fruit pests in PA. He will highlight how this work leverages the SEAREC facilities to scale up bio-efficacy studies in semi-field conditions.
Recording: Resistance Management in Pests and Vectors
Slides: Resistance Management in Pests and Vectors.pdf
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Jon Duncan, Associate Professor of Hydrology
Advancing Water Quality Research and Watershed Science at SEAREC
Time: 11:00-12:00 pm
Location: Food Science 342
Lancaster County is the hot spot of agricultural nonpoint source pollution for Chesapeake Bay. Federal agencies are partnering to better quantify nutrient loads in the Chiques Creek watershed, where the Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension Center (SEAREC) is located. This talk will highlight collaborations that are forming around this new water quality monitoring capacity and will present opportunities to join these research and data collection efforts.
Recording: Advancing Water Quality Research and Watershed Science at SEAREC
