AREC Faculty Members Receive AGNR Awards

May 21, 2018

The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (AGNR) recognized two AREC faculty members, Professor Jorge Holzer and Professor Dale Johnson, with awards for their research and creative work.

Holzer received the Integrated Research & Extension Excellence Award for his efforts in developing an integrated research and extension program. It focuses on three major policy themes that are significant in Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic region. They include the Chesapeake Bay’s fisheries and seafood industry, harvest allocation and recreational fisheries, and bycatch reduction.

He has also collaborated as lead economist in the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' work with the Environmental Defense Fund. There, they have assessed the potential outcomes of adopting rights-based management in the blue crab industry. Holzer’s research has been published in leading agricultural and resource field journals.

AGNR also awarded Johnson with The Dean Gordon Cairns Award for Distinguished Creative Work and Teaching in Agriculture. He is a principal agent and farm management specialist at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center and an affiliate faculty member at AREC.

Johnson has held over 600 multi-day workshops and seminars, and with over 12,000 participants. He has also created more than 90 fact sheets, farm management guides, curriculum, and journal articles among other educational materials. Johnson has also helped establish or support extension agencies in eight other countries to help improve the financial decision-making of farm businesses to encourage success in a free-market economy.

Holzer and Johnson will both be recognized on Monday, May 21, at the State of the College and Faculty/Staff Awards ceremony.